3 thoughts that can bring you from bad to good…but not good to great (part 1)
Thought #1: I need to win all the time.
Here’s the tricky thing about going from good to great.
There’s a whole set of things you’ve been doing in order to go from bad to good.
But those things, if you keep doing them, will keep you STUCK at “good”…
…and prevent you from getting to “great.”
Going from good to great requires an operating model flip.
You have to take a bunch of things that totally worked to get you from bad to good…
Things that were your greatest allies and most reliable rules and habits…
And you have to flip them upside down in order to go from good to great.
You have to start doing the exact opposite.
It’s very confusing — unless you recognize what’s happening.
Once you know that you’re in an operating model flip, it’s way easier to navigate.
So over the next few days, I’m going to give you 3 thoughts that can bring you from bad to good…but not good to great.
These are 3 thoughts that you have to flip.
Here’s the first one—
Thought #1: I need to win all the time.
When you’re going from bad to good, you’re building foundational skills.
You’re a tennis player learning proper form for a backhand.
Or a first-year analyst learning how to build a financial model.
Or a college student learning how to study effectively and meet all their deadlines.
When you’re building foundational skills, 100% is an appropriate success rate to aim for.
To be a good tennis player, you should have a near-perfect rate of using the proper form for your backhand.
To be a good analyst, you should have financial models without errors pretty much 100% of the time.
To be a good student, you should be able to learn the material effectively and meet deadlines on time.
When you’re going from good to great, the goalposts change.
Your foundational skills are totally set. You don’t have to worry about them anymore.
And now you’re aiming for something beyond the foundational skillset — something harder, bolder, and more uncertain.
Now, you’re a tennis player trying to win points against highly skilled opponents.
An investor trying to predict the future through your analysis.
A PhD candidate trying to create a breakthrough in your field.
These are not foundational skills. These are expert-level pursuits.
And when you’re going after expert-level pursuits, 100% is NOT an appropriate success rate to aim for.
As Roger Federer said in his viral commencement speech at Dartmouth:
In tennis, perfection is impossible. In the 1,526 singles matches I played in my career, I won almost 80% of those matches.
Now, I have a question for all of you... What percentage of the POINTS do you think I won in those matches?
Only 54%.
In other words, even top-ranked tennis players win barely more than half of the points they play.
That’s right —Roger Federer, one of the best tennis players in the world…
Would get a B- on his match win-rate and an F on his point win-rate…
IF you were to grade his performance on a school grading curve.
Does that mean Federer is a bad tennis player? No, of course not!
It means that the school grading curve is the wrong way to evaluate his performance.
It’s not reasonable to expect to win 100% of the time as an athlete.
It’s not reasonable to expect that 100% of your investments pan out.
It’s not reasonable to expect that 100% of your research ideas are breakthroughs.
In fact, if you’re hitting 100% on expert-level pursuits, you’re probably playing too small.
Your opponents are too weak.
Your investments are too safe.
Your research ideas are too small.
So here’s the first thought flip you need to make…
Thought Flip #1:
Even when I give my all…
I expect to fail a good portion of the time.
That’s a normal feature of going after expert-level pursuits.
Put that thought into your mental operating model today, and see what changes.
Coaching helps you update your mental operating system.
It helps you identify the automatic thoughts that are no longer working for you (even if they worked great in the past).
It helps you craft new thoughts to put in their place.
And it helps you operationalize those new thoughts in your day-to-day life.
It helps you feel those thoughts in your body (not just think them in your head).
And it helps you turn those thoughts and feelings into actions and results.
Because you can’t just think it. You have to live it.
Updating your mental operating system is not hard.
There is a simple, step-by-step toolkit for doing it.
And that’s the toolkit I teach my clients.
Learn all about how my one-on-one coaching program works here…
And then book a free consult call with me.
We’ll talk about what you want to work on in coaching, how I can help, and which package might be the best fit for you :)
What my clients have to say…
“My husband started noticing the progress I was making and commenting on how different my behavior was and how different my mental state and level of wellness was. And that was super. That was the validation for me that this was absolutely worth it, if even he can see that his partner is doing better.”
—Client | Head of Business Development at MedTech Company
Did you know I have a full table of contents, where all my work is categorized by topic, so you can easily find what you need right now? Check it out below! :)
Thought #2 ➡️
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