Competing with Excellence

From Ben Bergeron in his book Chasing Excellence:

“It’s easy to compete with excellence when things are going your way; maintaining your composure when everything seems to be working against you is far more impressive…”

“After a bad performance, it’s natural to feel frustrated and emotional. It’s easy to say you’re turning the page, but it’s much harder to control the negative thoughts that want to drift back into your mind. Like everything else, it’s a skill that needs to be practiced every day.”

The bottom line is that mistakes will happen. Nobody is perfect. We have to be ok with making the occasional mistake, because if you don’t make any mistakes you’re not challenging yourself enough. What we want to eliminate is the easily avoidable mistakes…mistakes made from a lack of preparation, care, attention, or effort.