ATTAINING THE GREATEST LIFE'S PERFORMANCES

On my soccer play with Keiko, I made a beautiful 'ala David Beckham goal.' Immediately I shouted, 'This is the best shot of the year!' Keiko instantly replied, 'I will make a more best shot, daddy!' I tried to correct her grammar saying that there is no 'more best' in English. Arguably, she responded, 'Then I will make the bestest shot of the year!' Her spirit of excellence is too evident! She insisted to be the MVP (most valuable player) despite of her grammatical error.

• Eight things that may constrain us from best performances:

• (1) Stop singing to ourselves that we will and are able to do our best may result in a deception of low self esteem mindset. Conviction and determination distant authentic champion from a by accident winner.
• (2) A strong determination with no discipline, with lack of preparation and with less skills are major characters of a purposeless life. A 10 minutes successful performance is indeed a result of years of discipline, training and learning. A mature and wise decision is a product of so many years in academy and of experiences. Your best achievement should simply be the glimpse apex of a huge mountain of labors and efforts.
• (3) The unwillingness to pay the appropriate price reduces the quality of the product. A Mercedes has a different price from a Honda. A first class seat costs a lot more money compared to an economy class. Our stars are shinning brighter in agreeable with the price we are willing to confer. This is not simply a matter of money, but sacrifice, suffering and pain. To bargain the price is simply to lower the grade of the expected output.
• (4) Premature contentment on our current achievement constraints us from attaining a higher level of success.
• (5) Too much learning from the past but no anticipation for the future is fatal. People are happy to recall their past experiences, especially the successful ones. Both successful and collapses in the past are helpful to prepare for a better race in the future. Unfortunately not so many people are aware of the rapidly changing contexts of our world today A success in the past may no longer be a success tomorrow. A glorification of the past is the major handicap of attaining a true glory in the future.
• (6) Self centered mentality blurs the vision of success. One tends to fight and labor for self interest, self exaltation, self fulfillment, self ambition, and self benefit. Publicly acknowledged achievement in one's life is actually not so much judged by its relation with the self, rather by how much the accomplishment benefits others.
• (7) Working alone reduces first significant power and energy of performing the best. One tends to labor alone because one is not willing others to take credit of his or her success. Friends are there but true friendship does not exist. Once, I read a beautiful words saying: 'None of us is smarter than all of us.' A teamwork is one of the most essential factors in producing great performances. A beautiful movie with less than ten main actors and actresses involves sometimes more than 500 very important people behind the scene. Our successes are often built on a foundation associating with so many people that we ourselves may not be aware of who they are.
• (8) Pride is a state of your own punishment. You may reach your top performance after a very hard works and difficult labors, hence, you will immediately fall to the ground when lowliness is absent. It is hard to reach the top, but it is harder to stay humbly on the top. The absence of humility results in self humiliation.

• For Keiko, the best is not the end yet. The next step are a 'more best' and the 'bestest.' There seems to be no limit in attaining and growing into excellence. The real question, as Keiko challenged me this evening is: 'Will you step in that level of life?'