Last Monday morning, I started thinking about the curse of comparisons. After dropping my daughters off at the train station, I headed to the gym. Each week  I try to run on the treadmill a few times. Sometimes I feel the love for the treadmill and run longer than expected. Other mornings I don’t feel the love at all! On these occasions I switch to some weight work instead.

Last Monday, I was feeling the love and instead of doing my standard five kilometres, I ran ten. My pace is on the slow side, so it took me just over an hour, but I was feeling pretty happy about myself.

On the way home, I heard on the radio that Kenya marathon runner, Eliud Kipchoge, had just won the Berlin marathon. It was a new world record time of two hours and one minute, smashing the previous record by 78 seconds.

42 kilometres in two hours!!! Four times what I ran, in only double the time.

There are a few different ways that you can handle a situation like this.

Compare and feel inadequate

This feels like, ‘I will never run as fast as that, I don’t know why I even bother’.

Compare and feel OK

This feels like, ‘I will never run as fast as that but then again I am not a 33-year-old male from Kenya.’

Compare and feel inspired

This feels like, ‘One day I am going to run faster than that’.

My reaction was to compare and feel OK. I don’t need to run that fast nor have  I any desire to put in the physical training required to do so. Apart from the obvious physical limitations I have as a 51-year-old, female Australian.

Comparisons in Business

I observe these three reactions in business when I speak to people about becoming Thought Leaders.

People naturally compare themselves to well-known Thought Leaders in their field. The Simon Sinek’s or Brene Brown’s of their industry. They are comparing a novice with someone who has been working on their craft for decades.

When you compare and feel inadequate, it is almost certain that you will give up before you even try. It is far more useful to compare and feel OK or compare and be inspired.

If you compare and feel OK, you may choose to focus on increasing your profile, influence and opportunities. While you may not ever have the recognition of Brene Brown, you don’t need that level of fame to make a difference.

You may also look at the likes of Simon Sinek and think that you could achieve the same level of success. Both Sinek and Brown were at one time unknowns. This means that you have made the choice to compare and be inspired to achieve great things.

Thought Leadership Success

Breaking a world record is not a prerequisite for increasing your profile in your industry. Figure out what you want, what you want to be known for and commit to the work.

If Thought Leadership is something you are interested in and want to commit to,  then I have two programs currently scheduled.

Melbourne 8^th and 9^th November 2018

New York 18^th and 19^th March 2019

Now I am off to the gym to smash out a blistering 5 kilometres in about half an hour or so.