Play Your Own Game
Years ago, I was at a woman’s golf tournament for a local club I was member of on Long Island. The game was down to the two finalists, an older woman – younger than me right now though, ha ha – and a teenager. The older woman had been waiting her entire golf career to be a finalist in the annual club tournament. She was incredibly capable, and could beat just about anybody at this point in her game. Unfortunately, for her, she got pitted against a woman many years her junior, who was also very good at her game. Inevitably, youth was going to win out that day just for sheer strength and stamina.
During the game, the older woman admitted to her friend who was caddying for her that she was disappointed. She had waited so long for this moment, and as luck would have it, she was paired up against a truly formidable opponent – age. You know what her friend told her? Play your own game. She couldn’t suddenly become young, she couldn’t suddenly gain extra strength, or even stamina, but she could hold her head high and play her best game.
I’ve thought a lot about this over the years. I believe it’s such an important theme of life – play your own game. Especially in business where there will always be people better than you. There will always be another agency that is better funded than yours. You will often be put against a formidable opponent who has so much more going for them. But, if you play your own game, even if you lose that pitch, or things don’t go the way you want them to, you know that you did your best.
We each have our own game to play.
We each have our own expertise and unique, secret sauce. We’re not responsible for the things that we can’t control, or random circumstances that throw us curveballs, but we are responsible for how we handle them. So, as we all head into the New Year, and look out at the horizon, perhaps wondering how this year will shape up, I would encourage you to focus on playing your own game.
By keeping your eyes pointed forward, focusing on those things that you know you do really well, you will gain more and more confidence. By remaining incredibly curious, so you can learn at every turn, you will find fresh ideas and new energy. Yes, you need to be aware of your competition, you need to understand what’s happening in your sector, so you can remain agile and ready, but can I encourage you to play your own game? The more you lean into your best, the better you become. And that’s when people sit up and take notice.