Don’t try to be the best you can ever be!
Are you satisfied with where you are and how good you are? I’m not, and I’ll never be. Yes, I like to look back and reflect on my successes, but my personal philosophy is that I want to be better each time than I was the last time. Whether it’s in business or in my personal life, it’s a constant push to do better, every time.
Listen to this new 6-minute episode to hear why I don’t ever want to be the best I can ever be… and neither should you!
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– Don’t try to be the best you can ever be. Listen to this episode to know where I’m going with this.
Hi, it’s Alan Berg, welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions Podcast. This is a phrase that I’ve used in some of my books. I’ve used it when I’m speaking and I used it, it’s actually my personal philosophy. Which is that, I don’t ever want to be the best that I can ever be at anything. Now, that might sound a little strange, but it’s because I want to be the best I’ve ever been, every time. Meaning next time is better, next time is better, next time is better. Some people have not understood this when I first said it because it sounds a little bit weird saying you don’t want to be the best you can ever be. You know, be all that you can be. Was that the army or whatever they were doing on that?
So the reason I’m saying this is, I am motivated by the fact that I can always be better. Whatever it is that I’m doing, whether it’s in my personal life, whether it’s in business, whether it’s in sports, whether it’s in my learning language, whatever it is, I can be better than the last time. And I’ve always said, “If I ever give the best speech I can ever give, it’ll be the last one I ever give.” I’m not seeking perfection. Those of you that have read my book, “Your Attitude for Success”, or have seen me present on that topic, know that I did TaeKwonDo, I’ve done martial arts, and I was surprised that we weren’t trying to do the perfect punch or the perfect kick. And the master explained to us that we’re trying to do it better than we did the last time. Not better than the other person. Better than yourself. And this is, that’s part of the mental training of martial arts. But this is the inner drive, which is, I can always be better.
So yes, I’m trying to do the best I’ve ever done every time, but not the best I can ever do. So what I’m really looking for you to get out of this is to think about can you be better at whatever it is you’re trying to improve. As of the recording of this, I had recently put out on on social media that I had crossed a thousand days on Duolingo of doing French lessons. And the point of it was not to brag, the point of it actually said, what are you trying to be better at? And if you’re trying to be better at anything, it’s not that I’m better at language, it’s that a thousand days in a row, I did at least one French lesson. Am I fluent? No, no, I’m fluent in Spanish, but I’ve also been doing that for years. I started, what is it, 10 years ago, learning Spanish. So the fact that I’m fluent now, and believe me, I’m not perfect in it. I don’t think my English is perfect either, but I’m better than I was.
And I do some Spanish lessons as well, just to keep myself sharp. But what I’m saying here is whatever you do, it’s like, can you do a wedding better than you did last week, last month, last year? The answer is, “Yes.” Can you be a better partner? Can you be a better husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, boss, employee, friend? You know, can you be better than you were at anything? And the answer is, “Yes”, but it it takes intention to do that. So again, I don’t want to be the best I can ever be at anything, but I want to try to improve every time so that I’m better than I was the last time. We always should be learning from the things that go wrong.
I gave a speech the other day in the UK and there was a line that I used actually, in the UK a few weeks before, and it got a good reaction from the audience. And this got nothing, nothing. And I was like, “Whoa!” I’m sorry, no, I did it in Ireland, it got no reaction. It was in the UK that it got a reaction, in the States it did. And I’m thinking, “Whoa.” Okay, so what did I learn from that? That’s the key. I’m not blaming the audience. I’m blaming me for not understanding that this audience wouldn’t relate to that. And I learned from that. So will I use that same line again? Yes. Will I use it in Ireland? No. ‘Cause it didn’t get a reaction. But that doesn’t mean that it negated what happened in the States or what happened in the UK.
So what are we learning every time? Athletes, what are you learning every time that you get up to bat, or that you’re on the ice, or that you’re dancing, or that you are, whatever it is that you do. What are you learning to be better? Are you learning to be better every time you do wordle, or a crossword puzzle, or reading a bedtime story? What can you be better at? And I think if we just keep in mind that we can always be better, and that we always want to be better, not that we take for granted. ‘Cause that’s the difference between confidence and being cocky and arrogant, right? Cocky and arrogant, didn’t do the work. Confident is because of the work that you did that you know you can do it and you can do it better.
And I think that’s really what I’m trying to get out of this, is for you to understand, think about something the next time you do it and now you intentionally trying to be better than you were the last time, every time. So that you’re never the best you can ever be but you’re always the best you’ve ever been. Thanks for listening.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
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