Who’s your strongest competitor?

What are your odds of beating him/her?

Step 3 of the 7 Steps to Becoming INVALUABLE is “Suspend Judgment.” Let’s take a look at how one winner used this concept to his advantage.

As American Idol is about to launch its new season, I couldn’t help but reflect on last year’s contest. The surprise win of Kris Allen over the favorite, Adam Lambert, offers some valuable insights into competition.

The importance of Winston Churchill’s famous 5-word speech to England’s citizenry, “Never, never, never give up,” was exemplified in Kris Allen’s American Idol win. Throughout the competition Adam Lambert was considered the person to beat. His performances were rewarded with glowing reviews from the judges and standing ovations from the audience. Yet, during the final two weeks of the competition it was Kris Allen who garnered the majority of the votes.

It would have been easy for Kris to embrace the idea that:

• Adam Lambert was more talented than he was
• Adam was more popular and, thus, unbeatable
• His chances of winning were nil

All of these thoughts could have, and probably did, enter his psyche. They all have one thing in common. They’re judgments; judgments wrought from emotion. These judgments limit our potential and the value we bring to society.

The reality is that there will always be someone a little brighter, a little more skilled, more experienced or more of a natural talent than we are. Their abilities make life miserable for us. No matter how hard we try we’re never going to surpass these people – or are we?

We can, and we will, if we follow Kris Allen’s example of setting aside these judgments and doing our best every week. It’s counter-intuitive, but there is only one competitor in your life – yourself. If you compare yourself against those who are brighter, more skilled, possess greater experience or are more naturally gifted, you’re likely to become disheartened and give up.

Conversely, if you compete only against yourself, every time you improve upon your previous performance you gain confidence and you position yourself for greater and greater success. It won’t matter what your competitors are doing, you’ll know that your success is assured because you’re continuously improving in areas that have value for your customers.

Learn from Kris Allen! Set aside those judgments that limit your future. Focus on your customers‘ needs and competing only with yourself. You’ll not only enjoy greater and greater success, odds are that you’ll have others in your industry viewing you as the one who is brighter, more skilled, more experienced or more naturally talented.

Tags: competition, counter-intuitive thinking, judgment, overcoming strong competitors, suspend judgment

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm and is filed under Productivity, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.