What does it take for anyone to be the best at anything? And does being labelled the best leadership coach in uk take different traits to being the best runner in the Olympics, the best artist of the Turner Prize, the best actress at the Oscars or the successful leadership in your organisation?
The word 'best' is often used to compare one person, talent or event to another. In this sense, I would steer clear of using it unless it's in a context of comparing me with myself. Wayne Dyer once said that 'true nobility is not about being better than anyone else, it's about being better than I used to be'. With that in mind, here's some of what I think it takes to bring out the best in who you're striving to become:
Compelling Vision:
When it's cold and wet and you have to get up for training, when you fingers are blistered from strumming those guitar chords a thousand times over, when you've got to dig deep to spend another day of business waiting for the breakthrough, a compelling vision will re-ignite passion and motivation to underpin the drive to keep going.
My vision is defined in writing, on a vision board and in a series of mind movies - so that however I'm reminded, it's inspiring.
Personal Responsibility:
No one became the best in their field by looking outside of themselves for the answers, by comparing themselves to another or for finding someone to blame. Each person has a definition of success that's as unique to them as is their fingerprint and a route to achieving that success that navigates through unchartered territory.
I regularly shake off the echos of 'if you could write like her...'; 'if you had money like him...'; 'if you were as smart as...'. I'm 100% responsible for the thoughts I think, the choices i make and for how big I choose to show up in the world.
Increasing Self Awareness:
What other's can observe about you will only ever be a tiny piece of the jigsaw. When you develop the skill of tuning in to the physical signs, the intellectual promptings, the emotional resonances, and the spiritual meaning of the vision you're choosing, then you can fully expand into the truth about your purpose. Only then can you stretch for the heights you secretly dream about. No limits remember?
For me, self awareness and self development are two circles with a Venn-diagram-like cross over point. My personal aim is to expand that central part to a point where awareness and development are entirely overlapping and function with synchronicity at all times... a work in progress.
I've worked with clients whose compelling vision, once defined clearly and courageously, has been enough to change their thoughts, their feelings, and their ability to take inspired action. Subsequently results begin to appear, sometimes so significantly and speedily that you wonder where they could have been hiding for all this time.
So, is it possible for you to be the best at whatever it is you expect for yourself? With vision, responsibility and awareness I say 'yes'. The most important thing as I always say, is to go inside for your answers - to take some quiet time, shut your eyes, focus your mind towards your heart and let the best you step forward!
