Definition of the Best (OR) How to be the Best

Being the best is amazing. People who are the best get to get - in basic terms - anything they want; fast cars, fancy houses, fantastic lives. 

Now, the rest of us can either marvel at the lives of these people or emulate it by figuring out how these people became the best.

But, who says you can't do both?

Let us walk through a class in science using:

A Gravitational Analogy

Science tells us the universe was born over a billion years ago. In an astronomical explosion of light, everything we know today was thrown into existence. 

An important debris from that explosion is what we have come to call the Solar System.

The solar system is perched at the edge of the Milky Way (the name of our galaxy). It hosts our sun, our home (earth), and seven other grand planets. 

By virtue of a special type of attraction, our home and the seven other planets are pulled to the sun. They, also, push back. This pull and push causes them to revolve at individual velocities around the sun. 

A similar phenomenon happens between the earth and the moon, the sun and the nucleus of the milky way, and virtually every interaction between heavenly bodies. Sir Issac Newton called this interaction Gravitational Attraction. 

An observation - worthy of note - from this illustration is that a large body always revolves around a larger body, and that larger body might revolve around an even larger body (for example, a large moon revolves around a larger planet, and the larger planet revolves around an even larger sun).

You and This Analogy

This analogy to you and I reveals a simple truism. I have put it in the following words: how large you are determines how things will revolve around you.

Imagine for a moment we are all at the core of individual spheres. These spheres vary in size depending on the person emanating it. 

These spheres which are, of course, unseen represent the influence we exert as individuals on our environment. The larger the sphere we emanate, the higher the pull we have. 

When others push back, as they always do, the small revolve around the large, the large revolve around the larger and the larger revolve around the largest.

In his book, The Dip, marketing guru Seth Godin put out a simple idea I feel relates to the quality of being large. Quote:

Being “the best” is significantly better than any other position.

People who are "the best" have things - people, rewards, autonomy - revolve around them; we give people at the top of a field more rewards than those who are below them. The CEO of a successful organization - for example - earns significantly more than other C-class executives because s/he is the best in making decisions that directs the outcomes of the organization.

So, if we want to reap these benefits and have things revolve around us, everything we do should be pursed towards being the best.

Definition of The Best

Now, there are a lot of ways to being the best. I, for one, believe in doing the best with what I have the best way I know how (I have purported this philosophy since I keyboarded an article on staying useful in the quest for doing what I love). 

"The best" connotes a standard recognition of what it means to be at the top of a field of interest. "The best way I know" implies my individual approach to reaching this standard.

In a real sense, the best is an illusion; it is a concept that is cultured and presented as a fixed setting that should be attained (if we are to enjoy the good things of life). It is an idea propagated by a culture that promotes competition. It is (or it creates) a status quo that is accepted and revolved around as the standard for everything else. Once hinged in the mind, the idea of needing to live up to this illusion causes a lot frustration, because comparison is based against an impossible yardstick.

However, ignoring this status quo isn't a fine strategy to being the best. But, instead, recognizing this status quo and pushing to be better. 

The key to being the best is to be better; recognizing the yardstick of being the best, and recognizing where you stand on this yardstick. Then, pushing yourself away from your previous position towards the top. 

Once you can push yourself higher from point A to point B on the yardstick, you are being the best. 

You are better than your previous best. 

It is this improvement that qualifies you as being the best, not some grand illusion that is applauded by the world - fast cars, fancy houses, fantastic life. When you begin to receive the applause and recognition, you know that you have always been the best by doing your best. Even though the recognition is nice, it's not what defines you as the best; what defines you as the best is the quality that you have been making yourself be better.

Keep in mind that, at every point in time, you are the best version of yourself. How you move away from things that do not align you with your definition of the best is up to you. You just have to keep at being better.

How To Be The Best 

If you fancy being the sun and having grands planets and the objects these grand planets carry revolve around you, fan that thought. 

Get to work at being the best. Tell yourself you are the best. Show the world you are the best. When the world refuses to acknowledge your best as the best, keep improving. Marvel at those who occupy the best positions. But, don't stop there. Emulate them. One of them may just reward with a fast car, a fancy house, or talk about your fantastic life. Keep at being better, after all, the constant answer to the question: "is this the best (I can do)" is always no. 

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Post Author: P. W. Uduk 
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Photo Source: www.huffingtonpost.com (solar system), www.notetoselfblog.com (Maya Angelou quote) 


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