The power of staying your own course
As college football season approaches (my favorite sport by the way), you’re going to hear a lot of reporters interviewing coaches and asking them this question:
What do you think about such and such team?
Here’s the best answer you’ll hear.
After giving that team a compliment, they shift back and say that they’re more focused on their own team right now, what they can do, rather than think or worry about the other teams.
It’s an excellent response as it shows you the right mindset to be in.
WAY too many people are focused on other “teams”.
They hear somebody bought a house so they must buy a house. Another couple just had a kid, they should have a kid. Another couple moved here, they should move there. Somebody got a job in this field, they should too.
Way too much monkey see monkey do going on in people’s lives.
They get too distracted as to what other people do and react accordingly to that in their own lives.
That’s like driving and looking at all the other cars on the road all the time.
You’re going to crash and it’s not going to be pretty.
Stay your own course.
Everybody has their own destination. Some people are trying to get to Vegas, others Florida, others Alaska, others Maine, the list goes on and on and on. It’s important you focus on going to your own destination because if you keep on changing it based on where you see others are going, you’ll end up nowhere. Just driving around in circles.
If your original plan was to go to Vegas but you see another go to Washington so you switch course and on the way you see somebody going to Texas so you switch course again, you’re just driving around aimlessly while everyone else is staying on their own course.
Focus on what you’re doing, where you’re going, what you can control. It’s such a simple idea but it’s very powerful.
The moment you start looking at what other people are doing, you open up a whole can of worms.
They doing this – should I be dong that too?
What if I’m wrong?
I’ll never catch up.
All that breeds insecurity, worry, and doubt.
Focusing on your own course gives you the complete opposite. You develop confidence, direction, persistence, action, you’re more present, aware of what you want to do, what you’re currently doing, if it’s working or not, what adjustments need to be made, etc., – and the football teams that do this eventually rise to the top over time.
And stay there for a long time as well.
Just something to think about over the weekend.
