Champions in life are the ones who always compete, even when they’re not winning.

It’s an attitude. A mentality that you’re going to bring it every chance you get, regardless of what the scoreboard says.

Want to be a Champion? Ask yourself if you bring your best…

• When starting a new job in a position that you feel is beneath you…
• When you’re 6 months into chasing a fitness goal and it’s seems like you’re still another 6-12 months away from reaching it
• When you just got served divorce papers.

In those moments, are you someone who brings it?

If you weren’t, the good news is you can be now. Champions also have short-term memories.

Mistakes happen. What matters most is what we do next.

Bring it this week, Competitor.

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You have to make small, consistent deposits every day to slowly build the account into a large sum.

$10 here. $25 there. $12 this time. etc..

Small amounts that we don’t think too much on their own, but compounded over time? Big impact.

Relationships work the same way.

What deposits are you making with your coworkers today?

• Do you know much about their life outside of the office – and ask them about it?
• Have you asked about their passions in life?
• Have you considered introducing them to someone in your network?

It’s great to want influence, but we can’t magically snap our fingers and have it. It’s something we earn by investing in the relationships with those around us.

My middle school football coach always said “if you can get to a player’s heart, you can get to their head.”

It’s true. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Once they know how much you care, you can influence and impact them.

What small deposit will you make today in them?

The post Earning Your Influence appeared first on COMPETE EVERY DAY.

Kids. Coworkers. Friends.

People always have our eyes on us. Especially if they know we are striving to be better or a leader in one realm.

Eyes are always watching to see what we do, how we respond, and what actions we take.

What example are you showing them?

Because every move we make is setting an example to those watching us silently from the side.

• How we handle disappointment sets an example for how leaders should handle disappointment.
• How we handle winning sets the example to them for how leaders should handle winning.
• How we interact with coworkers above/below us on the org chart sets the example for how they should engage coworkers.

Every move we make is setting a good or bad example to those watching of what a leader does.

What example will you set for them this week?

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Five Thirty Eight published an article regarding research and why great athletes tend to be younger siblings.

It’s a fascinating study on how many great athletes grow up, specially how the younger sibling tends to be the better athlete and performer longterm.

Why?

Author Tim Wigmore points to a number of contributing factors, including the faster development of physical and mental skills by playing against their older sibling.

Big brother & big sister tend to whoop their younger sibling early in sports because they’re older, more physically matured, and more experienced playing sports.

Due to this, the younger sibling is at a disadvantage and must learn much quicker how to improve their skills in order to beat the one person they are driven to beat.

The better opponent forces the younger sibling to more quickly raise their game in order to continue competing.

It works the same for us beyond our youth, too.

• Want to improve your fitness level? Start training with individuals more experienced than you.
• Want to grow your career? Start investing time learning from & networking with professionals 5-10 years ahead of you in your industry.
• Want to cultivate a healthier marriage? Spend one night every month with a couple who has 10-20 years ahead of you in relationship to learn how they better navigated challenges of long-term commitment.

We grow better by putting ourselves in situations with others who are better than us. Iron sharpens iron, right? 

Ask yourself today, how can I put myself in a new situation in February where I’m at the bottom of the experience/success ladder? How can I put myself around people who have achieved more so I can better learn how I can too?

Winning next year starts with what you do to finish this one.

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• It’s challenging.
• We’re not good at it (yet)
• It’s taking too long.

I could honestly give you 100 reasons why I could quit my career. I could rattle them off as effortlessly as breathing.

We always have an abundance of reasons why we can give up pursuing something important. It’s what most people do.

Competitors hear all of the reasons they should give up, but instead of listening to them, they block them out so they can focus on finding the reason to keep going.

• “Because I don’t want to be in debt for the rest of my life.”
• “Because I don’t want to get to the end of my life and wish I’d given my best effort.”
• “Because my friend is watching me & needing hope.”

Whatever your reason to keep going is, find it. Repeat it time and time again.

And then use it to keep going.

It’s easy to find a reason to quit. It’s why most people never achieve things of merit.

Champions always find the reason to keep going.

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Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others? – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Leadership is about how well we can help build other leaders – not how we can accumulate followers for our own ego.

Most of society loves the ideas of more followers. More likes. More online love. More attention.

But using that platform to turn the focus onto others and help them become better people?

That’s leadership.

It’s not easy. We naturally love getting attention and acceptance. Being someone who puts the focus entirely on others can be challenging at first because it’s different.

But it’s necessary.

Our influence today hinges on our ability to pivot our focus from solely on our success and more toward how we can help others succeed.

As we celebrate the life of Dr. King today, I’d encourage you to take a few minutes to write down what one action step you can take this week to help someone else reach their goals.

Be the reason someone else lives out their dream.

The post Who Are You Carrying With You? appeared first on COMPETE EVERY DAY.

It goes by many names. Grit. Perseverance. Determination. Stubbornness.

It’s the ability to keep showing up for yourself and what you believe in until the challenge in front of you folds.

Take for instance Allan Scott, the producer behind Netflix’s wildly successful series, The Queen’s Gambit. The show has been watched by 62 MILLION PEOPLE. Quite a hit, eh?

It wasn’t seen that way and wasn’t easy to produce.

In fact, Amy Charlotte Kean shared that Scott mentioned in a BBC interview that..

it took him 30 years, with 9 rewrites, and every studio he showed it to said that no one would be interested in chess.

Yet…

• 62 million people have streamed the series.
• Sales of chess sets have exploded. Ebay even reported a 273% growth in search and sales

And the best part?

The Netflix show’s success is due largely to word of mouth, not mainstream advertising. Someone saw it. Loved it. And then told someone else about it.

One after another after another.

In fact, when the show released, it was doing “ok” for new series, but after roughly a month, it’s viewership exploded.

After 30 years of work to write & create it. Not bad for an ‘overnight success’ right?

I don’t know what your life’s version of The Queen’s Gambit is – that goal you’ve been working on or creation you’ve been tinkering with.

But stick with it.

Keep showing up and fighting for it.

Don’t let the lack of current success deter you.

Don’t let the length of the timeline to completing it stop you.

Just keep showing up for it. Eventually, the dam breaks.

But only if you keep working at it.

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I never really thought about gratitude being a muscle like my hamstrings or biceps, but it is.

Similar to our mental toughness – if we aren’t actively building it, it’s going to atrophy.

I issued a challenge in September to Competitor Nation to write a handwritten thank you card each day of the month. It was a simple exercise, but not an easy one because it required time, intention, & consistency to sit down and write a thank-you note every day.

Easy doesn’t make us proud. Tough challenges are the ones that do because they make us better.

So this month, I want to challenge you to take up the Gratitude Challenge.

It’s November 18th.

Your goal – should you choose to step up and accept it – will be to write a thank you note to someone new every day this month.

Ideally it’s a handwritten card, but we’ll ease the rules and let you call them or send a video message. So today you need to…

• Find someone in your life, network, career that you respect and appreciate
• Send them a note or video thanking them for the impact they’ve had on you.
• Repeat tomorrow.

If you’re in sales, this could be a game-changer for your prospects and business.

If you’re pursuing a career because of the impact others that you’ve met (or followed) have had on you, this could be a great way to build relationships.

Honestly, this is just a powerful exercise in building your gratitude muscle, reframing your perspective (especially in tough times) and strengthening your relationships.

You up for the challenge? Reply back and let me know.

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Same goes in the gym when people leave their weights lying around instead putting them back on the rack.

It’s a sign that the person who left it behind is lazy, entitled, or just lacks the respect for others to return that which you went to the trouble to take out.

Almost like a kid who makes a mess of his toys and then expects his mom or dad to pick them up.

It’s the same attitude a former boss of mine had when he was “too high” on the organizational chart to pick up the sugar packets, spilled tea, and mess he made on the conference room table during every meeting.

It’s no wonder his culture collapsed and company soon followed.

No one wants to follow the “do as I say, not as I do” leader – but they’ll jump over themselves to follow the person who has rolled up their sleeves and done the work themselves.

A great leader always knows where the rack is because they either a) took the weights out to begin with or b) asked someone, because they understood one thing we should strive for every time:

To leave every place/experience/interaction better than when we started.

If we make a mess, we own it by picking up after ourselves.

If we want others to live up to a high standard, we first must be modeling that high standard.

Leaders always rack their carts/weights.

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An athlete can’t hope to make this current play if they’re fixated on what they’ll do after the game or replaying the bucket they scored last time down the court.

They must be fully present in today in order to be at their best – and so do we.

It’s a challenge to stay present. Distractions run rampant. Our mind wants to run to the past or perhaps the future. And if you’re like me, certain things (good or bad) can get stuck in your thoughts, taking you out of the place you are right now.

So try this:

1. Focus on your breathing. I use the box-technique (4 seconds in, hold for 4 seconds, 4 seconds out, hold for 4 seconds) and focus on it to try and recenter my thoughts back to now. It helps by slowing my heartrate and taking my focus off of everything else and back onto my breathing.

2. Ask yourself “What can I do right now to improve my situation? If you’re stressing about an unknown “what if” of tomorrow, look at one action step you can take right now to improve your positioning tomorrow. Lock into the most immediate step you can take.

3. Practice gratitude. As Dr. Gabana shared on my podcast, you don’t have to feel grateful to practice being grateful. It’s an action more than it is a feeling. When struggling to stay present, pick out something/someone you’re grateful for and focus on them. This small practice helps get our focus off of the things outside of our control (past, future, uncontrollables) and shifts our perspective back into what we do have here in the present.

Champions understand they must be where their feet are to perform at their best. Sales meeting, championship football game, dinner with a spouse – the most important moments in life require us to be in them mentally & physically.

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