As I write this on a dark wet and windy summers morning in July my mind wonders to the Olympics and the gradual build up to the greatest sporting even in the world.
A competition of the very best athletes coming together to take part in 300 events, all of them dreaming of winning a gold medal. It is expected 147 national will take part in the Paralympics too.
This event is where medals can be won or lost in a fraction of a second. The difference of being a gold medallist and a bronze medallist can be thousandths of a second, a fraction of a moment which can affect an individual for the rest of their lives. To become a household name overnight, or forgotten in moments. A place where comparisons are made, who is the best, the fastest, the most agile, who has the best stamina, and so it goes on.
However it isn’t just at the Olympics that this constant comparing goes on, it goes on in everyday life. Many individuals compare themselves to others wishing they had the talents, skills, looks, position at work, or money of someone else, and yet I believe this thinking is flawed. Many people look out at what others have or can do, rather than looking at themselves more closely.
We are all individuals, and if we are individual, that means we are a one off, we are unique. And if we are unique, then there is no one like us, and if there is no one like us, we cannot compare ourselves to others. So why do we so often go through life trying to do so?
Instead we should consider comparing ourselves, to ourselves! It isn’t as strange as it might initially seem. I often ask my clients to put themselves on a scale from zero to ten. Zero being the worst (when we first met) to ten being the very best they can imagine. By doing so each time we meet, we can gauge the improvements that our working together brings. As they go higher up the scale, the more improvements they are noticing in themselves. Their focus becomes more about making positive changes to themselves, releasing and letting go of things no longer needed, and building new skills and belief systems.
Each moment is an end and a new beginning, a significant change or new belief or understanding can happen in a heartbeat or even quicker, in a mere moment of time. Putting energy into changing and adapting helps us to move on in life more easily. Of course many times is has to be worked at, discipline, commitment and focus are all needed, but it is worth it.
So unless you are preparing for the Olympics, consider focusing on your own uniqueness, look at pushing barriers and limitations, learning new skills and understandings and developing your own uniqueness. That way, you too will eventually feel how it feels to be your very best. You may not be an Olympic athlete and you may never win a gold Olympic medal, but you may well find that you can be perfectly you!
