On my sunrise hike/trail run this morning, I saw a guy wearing a sweet Jerry Garcia t-shirt. I waved and smiled and said “Hi!” and we had a nice little micro-Love 2.0 moment.

Then I thought about a passage from Super Bowl-winning coach Pete Carrol’s book Win Forever. He tells an E P I C story about Jerry Garcia.

Here it is: “I remember hearing an interview with the late, great guitar player and leader of the band, Jerry Garcia. I can’t remember exactly what question the interviewer asked him, but it was something along the lines of ‘How do you feel about being possibly the greatest rock-and-roll band of all time?’ A classic softball question, but rather than responding with the usual fluff, Jerry said something I’ll never forget. ‘No, man,’ he answered, ever so relaxed. ‘That’s not how we think of ourselves at all. We don’t want to be the best ones doing something—we want to be the only ones doing it.’”

I’ll repeat that last line for emphasis: “We don’t want to be the best ones doing something—we want to be the only ones doing it.’”

<- How awesome is THAT?

Pete continues: “That cool reply stuck in my head. And as I thought about it over the years, I came to realize what an important concept Garcia was onto. The best performers, whether athletes, entertainers, or anybody else trying to do anything well, are the ones who aren’t trying to win by playing someone else’s game. Each person is made up of a unique combination of strengths, weaknesses, abilities, and talents, and any one of us can only truly maximize our potential in the context of that individual makeup. That’s why it doesn’t make sense to think about competition in the context of any one opponent: If you are really in a Win Forever mind-set, the only comparison that matters is yourself. Your goal should be to maximize your potential and your performance as a permanent way of being, rather than just in terms of individual victories.”

Amen.

That’s Today’s +1.

Are you trying to win someone else’s game?

What would your life look like if you let go of the social comparison and simply tried to be the best YOU you can possibly be?

Even just imagining that version of you makes me want to put my sunglasses on. That’s BRIGHT!

Let’s do this. 😎

Making (Life) Music with Jerry Garcia #541

Key Lyrics: Be You

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Win Forever

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