Lots of little wins

You’ve likely heard it before: Don’t compare yourself to others.

The thing is, we inevitably do. No pithy maxim is pithy enough nor maximum enough (sure, why not?) to dissuade our lizard brains from looking sideways to the dominant players in our space. Inevitably, we compare. Inevitably, we feel we’re falling short of them.

So rather than simply declare we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others and act like the problem is solved, what if we re-wired our brains to recognize what we’re really looking at — and looking for — when we inevitably DO look to work that inspires us? Because who wants to live in a world without inspiration? That’s not the issue. The issue is we aren’t sure what we’re looking at or looking for.

We’re looking at the sum of lots of little wins.

We’re looking for the tiniest of pieces we can snap off another project and absorb into the work we do.

It’s when we try to absorb the entirety of another project or career that we trip ourselves up.

We need magic to follow. Otherwise, it’s crap in, crap out. But when we compare ourselves to others, it’s like opening up someone else’s entire cabinet of magic potions and chugging them all at once. Of course we’ll feel sick!

When paralysis sets in, or jealousy, or stress, it’s because we conflate the work we’re doing with the work we’re admiring. But they’re two different things! Our work is taken in bits and bites, because we’re living it every moment. Work we admire is actually the sum total of lots of little wins, all rolled together. We can’t see all the tiny motions they went through — some good, many bad. But THAT is what we should be learning from and what we should absorb for inspiration.

To access it, we have to study and deconstruct and turn it over in our minds … not consume it wholesale like we so often do.

So instead of comparing ourselves to others, or even “seeking inspiration,” what if we looked at literally anything else in this world and saw it for what it really was: the sum total of lots of little pieces? Then we could busy ourselves with trying to identify a few of those small bits that we might find useful, melding them together with the details of our unique context.

That’s all the work that inspires us really is: lots of little wins all strung together.

Forget the wholesale comparisons. Learn to see amazing work with an X-ray lens. Find the tiny pieces, and pocket them for later. Then go back to accruing lots of your own little wins on your way to doing something big.

[Now available: 3 Clips is my new podcast where we deconstruct other podcasts that inspire us. We aim to understand great shows, a few little pieces at a time. You can hear the trailer now, and be sure to subscribe to get Episode 1 next week when the show debuts. New episodes each Monday, hosted by me and the team at Marketing Showrunners. Subscribe via Apple, Overcast, Spotify, Stitcher, et al.]