Excerpts From Make the Big Time Where you Are

"I've heard lots of athletes talk about THE EDGE."      "Competitors in any field talk about THE EDGE. some have called it the winning edge, others have called it the competitive edge. Regardless of what you call it, THE EDGE is what makes the difference in your performance in any walk of life. This is what the best is all about. Let's look at it from three different points of view, like the three sides of the coin that relate directly to the word 'best.' First off let's talk about the side of the coin that most people choose when we talk about best -- that is, being the best. We discussed the '#1 or no one' idea before, but let's look again from the view of the three-sided coin. People who choose this side of the coin talk about, think about and go about -- with all their time, talent, and efforts -- trying to be #1 in whatever they do. To measure this they continually play the comparison game and are always searching for that road to success. The fallacy of this way of thinking is, as I said before, that we can't really control being #1. This side of the coin does not give you the edge. In fact, you really lose the edge. Being the best in anything is actually a by-product of the competitive experience and most people don't understand this. It is the result of a combination of various factors and one of the most important ones is not defeating ourselves.      The second side of the coin and the second view of best is doing our best. We need to realize that doing our best is more important than being the best, because we are now focusing on our real competition: ourselves. As I shared in the poem, we can put our energy and efforts where they belong -- on ourselves, where they can have the greatest effect on ourselves, where they can have the greatest effect on our performance. In the many diverse competitive areas of our lives, most of the time we beat ourselves. We are out of focus and concentrating on the wrong target -- our opponents. We cannot control them, but we can control ourselves, and when we really come to understand and believe this we will adjust the way we compete. That's really important. We now focus on key targets that we can hit. When we do this, our concentration and confidence are dramatically increased, thereby raising our level of performance. I realize there are times we are defeated on a scoreboard or in a business situation by an outstanding performance by our opponent. However, a high percent of the time, we actually beat ourselves through our own errors in judgment, basic mistakes and improper use of our efforts. There is a 20/80 rule that says 20% of what we do produces 80% of the results. Too many people don't know what the 20% really is that controls 80% of their performance. They focus on things that are out of their control or spend too much time on things that are insignificant. Each one of use needs to look at what we are doing and determine the key fundamentals... When we do this, we put ourselves in position where being the best can become a bonafide by-product.      "The key question is, 'What is our best?' and 'How do we bring out our best?'" The first thing we need to realize is that we can usually do much better than we think we can."      "'Potential is difficult to measure. There are various tests: intelligence, fitness, skill, and other potential tests relating to specific performance. However, there is another intangible quality in all of us that has afar surpassed the results of these tests. That quality is an inner drive, a powerful drive, just waiting to be tapped. When it is, we become truly motivated and shift into another gear we didn't realize we had. Success in anything in life is largely mental -- not mental intelligence but mental attitude and mental thoughness. Both of these are essential ingredients for doing our best. Our attitude is our habit of thought, and is one of the keys to unlocking our potential. People live and die every day because of their attitudes and don't even know it. A winning attitude has to be learned - it doesn't just happen. We must work to develop positive ideals that really do make a difference in our ability to do our best. A winning attitude constantly accents our strengths rather that our weaknesses, our desires rather than our fears. 'It's the dynamic spirit in our heart and soul that say, I can, I will, I must, regardless of the odds. I will get the job done within the letter and the spirit of the rules'."      He wrote for several minutes in his notes.      "Gary -- even after understanding this view of doing our best, most of the time we still don't do it. Even though our focus is right and we apply the basic fundamentals of success, we still don't do our best most of th time, and the reason is THE EDGE. It's that slight edge that makes all the difference in our performance. It's that third side of the coin. Most all of us know it and talk about it, though we really don't understand it and apply it. But when we do, exciting things start to happen that bring out the best in ourselves more often."      "I still haven't gotten it; what is THE EDGE?"      "We are talking about the third side of the coin, the third definition of 'best' - that is, GIVING IT OUR BEST SHOT. This is the one area we have the most control over. Most people consider doing your best and giving it your best shot as the same, but they're not. You see, when we don't do our best or as good as we think we should, we get down on ourselves very quickly. We become frustrated, self-critical, and lose confidence. All this leads to the fear of failure, and we end up actually trying too hard, resulting in lower performance levels. When we concentrate on giving it our best shot, we just reload and keep aiming and firing, while adjusting and adapting ourselves to each changing situation. We continually enjoy the challenge of the moment, the excitement of each opportunity; and the by-product is that our best will come out a higher percent of the time. This is where THE EDGE is -- it's in the process."