Is bronze better than silver? Is it better to measure yourself against the BEST or how far YOU’VE come?
This post from Jacqueline Nesi, PhD of Techno Sapiens helped me further understand something I told my daughter while watching gymnastics and our local fave Suni Lee – Silver means you lost, but you win the Bronze.*
It also made me think about a book I recently read but didn’t finish,** “The Gap and The Gain: The High Achiever’s Guide to Happiness, Confidence and Success.” The basic lesson is that if you always measure yourself against the highest level of achievement you’ll be disappointed, but if you measure yourself against where you started, you’ll see YOUR gains and it’s a more realistic way to look at achievement.
Suni Lee’s goals for the Paris Olympics were very gain focused: a team gold medal, an all-around podium finish, a bars medal and a gold medal on the balance beam. I won’t spoil today’s beam competition results for you, but it’s safe to say Suni will be happy overall with her Olympics achievements this year.
*And if you’ve read this far, maybe you too are a 90s kid and remember the wisdom of a NO FEAR shirt, “2nd place is 1st loser”
**I don’t force myself to finish books if I feel I’ve learned something from them and am ready to move on. It doesn’t happen often, but I’m ok with when it does.