Good Better Best

Those who move about the world trying to be the best have made a terrible error and I herein hope to illustrate, clearly, their follies. It is then my hope that with a little clarification and a lot of encouragement we can all get on the only track of deep and lasting value--the track that leads one to be their best.When one puts all their hard work into being the best they've done two things and we'll discuss them in tandem. First, they've spent all that time and energy to, if they're lucky, become better at what they've chosen than anyone else. This is as fleeting as trying to hold water in your hands. Records are continually broken, or the world moves on and never remembers one's chosen vocation, trade, occupation, hobby, or sport. In short, the best will always be a fleeting achievement. Never something to have for more than a moment. Those who have spent their lives to achieve the best will find that they've achieved nothing of real note or lasting value. Second, they've spent all that time and energy to cheat themselves out of real accomplishment. The reason for this is that if one has given their all in an endeavor to be the best and they come up second, they will forever feel the failure. No matter how much growth one attains, if they do not become the best and that was their goal, they will again have spent their lives for nothing. I mean no real criticism, rather sadness for the many I see attempting this (though sadder still for those attemtping nothing).On top of all of this, the real nature of being the best means nothing more than assuring that those around you are worse off than yourself. That is essentially the point isn't it? And how many truly want to admit to that as their aspiration? If everyone ran 8 minute miles, then you would only need to run a 7:30 mile to be the best. Yet is that the best that man can produce? No. It seems a silly example, I'm sure, but it is resting, as we say, on the nail's head.Politically we see this in how often candidates will speak about their opponent. I don't care what any candidate thinks about their opponent. I'll listen to the opponent later, for the moment tell me about yourself. Do you see the illustration of the principal? So much of election time is spent by our candidates digging up dirt on each other and then presenting the dirt. If all that time spent mud slinging were spent on policies and self-improvement, how much better would our candidates be? How much better would America be if we all followed suit?Striving to be the best cheats us of our true potential. Because trying to be the best means we're already spending at least some time checking to make sure our opponents are still worse off than we are. That, as before, is time that could have been spent improving our own game, or intelligence, or such as it may be. The solution is simply to change the terminology. We must endeavor to be our best.An individual is the only true and honest judge of what best is. Only I know whether I'm giving it my all or not. Only I can limit myself. Likewise only I can be the impetus for doing better. When everyone in a society is interested in getting better together, that doesn't mean everyone has to be just as good as everyone else. It means, simply, that everyone is trying to be their very own best and at the same time encouraging everyone around them to improve. A society grows together in this fashion. The desire to be the best is an isolating one at best, because it means that you want your friends to be beneath you. How else could you be the best? The desire to be your best however, is an all encompassing one. It draws everyone to you, because we realize the healthiness of competition. Not for the sake of being better one from the other, but of seeing how we're doing, and learning from the other. I love to play against someone I will lose to, because it means that the more I play them, the more I'll learn about what I'm doing that could be improved. I don't want to be better than that person necessarily, but I want to know that I'm better after playing them than I was before.When a life is spent in the pursuit of being its best then there is perfect and lasting contentment at the end. Being our best is the only really achievable goal in any case, and it is the only one upon which a society can be founded. Healthy competition is good on the field, in school, or in the market place. But that is a complicated competition. The competition to be the best is a sadly simple one that involves cutting down those around you. A society founded by such people could never last, and we are watching what it is doing to America.In short and to summarize, we need more citizens who are willing to lose. More citizens confident in themselves, so that at election time we hear more good ideas and less criticism. So that in our sports we don't just watch for the best players each year, but we watch as the entire sport is improved. We need more citizens who understand that the only way for real growth is to work together, holding each other up. To be the best is for society to stand in one spot and, as in the game king-of-the-mountain, knock everyone else down as they try to get up to us . . . and it will always be a lonely spot at the top of that mountain.