Realize your potential by competing with your good self

Friends, if you could identify the athlete in the picture, accept a warm handshake. 

If you could also recall him as the one who held both the indoor and outdoor world record in Pole Vault for a good 20+ years, then accept a pat on your back. 

If you could tell that he was the first to break the psychological barrier of leapfrogging a height of 6.00 meters (more than three times the global average of height of a man) with the help of a mere pole, then accept a friendly hug. 

And, if you could also tell that while improving his own record event after event, he broke the world record in pole vault 35 times, then accept my handshake first, pat on your back next, followed by a friendly hug, and then, take a bow! 

This legendary athlete’s name is Sergey Bubka. He set his first world record of 5.85m on 26 May 1984, which he improved to 5.88m a week later, and then to 5.90m a month later. He cleared 6.00 metres in 1985 - a height that had long been considered unattainable by humans. With virtually no opponents, Bubka improved his own record over the next 10 years until he reached his career best and the then world record of 6.14 m (20 feet 13⁄4 inches) in 1994. 

During my early years as a professional anytime there was an international track and field sports event we were used to Sergey Bubka making sports headlines - “Bubka broke his own Pole Vault record yet again!” 

Pole Vault! This field and track event sport is played with just one assist tool in hand - a pole, usually much longer than your own height. You run with the pole in hand, plant it firmly on the ground when you approach the target horizontal bar as you still keep running, bend the pole to transfer some of your kinetic energy to potential energy in the pole, use that potential energy to launch yourself at one crucial point from your horizontal running posture to a vertical jump, attain as much height as possible by exploiting the stored energy released from the pole, control your body as you vault into the air and release the bar after clearing the horizontal bar skillfully! 

And then, 

Then what? 

Pray God! 

If you are skilled enough, you land safely on the other side of the bar, like Bubka did year after year while breaking his own record 35 times. But if you are not good at the sport, like me, you fall on the same side from where you had taken off and quit playing the sport! 

“Who was Sergey Bubka competing with when he was breaking the world record year after year, event after event, for not once or twice, but 35 times over his illustrious career?” I was intrigued by this question often. 

Each time I heard the echo - “he was competing with himself!” 

That is where most of us fundamentally go wrong as individuals. We compete with others aimlessly, but don’t compete with ourselves purposely. 

Segey Bubka woke up every morning thinking how he could be an improved pole vaulter compared to what he was just the previous day, with several questions in his mind: "how could I grip the pole better today? How could I optimize my run up as I hold the pole and approach the planting point today? How do I leapfrog from the pole planting position most seamlessly today? How do I release the pole at the right point, after exploiting every bit of energy stored in the pole today? And so on…” 

As professionals, our life should be no different. Every morning, we should wake up thinking, “how can I be a better version of myself, today, compared to what I was yesterday?” 

How can I learn a few new things and apply the learning to the day-to-day job I am executing? 

I am good at doing my work; how can I present my ideas to my stakeholders with convincing algorithms and flow of thoughts? 

I am good at a particular skill; how can I pick up a few complimentary skills and have an improved understanding of a broader application space? 

To put it succinctly, I would passionately pursue to realize my potential by competing with myself to be a better version of myself each passing day… 

Any complementary thoughts or comments friends?

PS: The philosophy, ‘competing with self’ has been highlighted as a life experience in my book - “The Scrapper’s Way: Making It Big in an Unequal World”