Your Best Is Yet to Come - Maraia and Associates

Volume 12, Issue 6

“Your best is yet to come.” How many times have we heard that phrase? Probably not often enough. Have you ever internalized it? Do you really believe your best is yet to come? Too often our clients don’t believe it about themselves or their firms. Indeed, during the recent economic turmoil it’s very tempting to shift into survival mode and just try to get back to where you were 9 months ago. That is a mistake!!! That is your smaller self trying to pull you into littleness.

Let me make an important point about your self worth: If you have experienced a dramatic increase OR decrease in your workload or revenues, it doesn’t say anything about your worth as a person! NEVER FORGET THAT!

Your best is yet to come. How many times have you thought that to yourself in the past year? If you haven’t had that thought even once lately, then you need to move outside your comfort zone! I’ve found myself uttering this simple six-word sentence to clients many times during the past 9 months. At the same time, I’ve come to realize it’s also a message for me. I’ve noticed a renewed energy and enthusiasm in my work. That seems funny because people who meet me for the first time often make some remark about my boundless energy and enthusiasm. And I think I’ve gained a greater purpose for my work, as well. For example, I’ve gained great clarity about the purpose of my business: To increase relationship literacy in the legal profession and the business world at large! When you believe your best is yet to come, your attitude will shift. Instead of looking for doom and gloom, you will start looking for opportunities and you will look at things differently.

Does this apply only to business people? No!! Suppose you’re a retired executive or a homemaker. Can your best still be ahead of you? Absolutely!! Your best doesn’t have to be measured using an outwardly tangible scale. In fact, it makes more sense to measure your best using an inward scale. What might that be? How about having much greater peace of mind? How about not getting worked up over issues and circumstances that used to make your blood boil?

Let me offer another experience to make the point. I’ve been a runner for 25 years. As you’d expect, I don’t run as fast today as I did 25 years ago. When I was younger, I would have measured my best in running by how fast or how many miles I ran. As I slowed down, I had to find new ways to measure my best. For many years, I’ve measured my best runs by the number of new ideas that came to me during the run. In fact, the idea for this article came to me while I was out running. That makes it a great run.

Are you noticing a voice in your head that is telling you to “be realistic?” If you’re like most people, the answer is yes. My advice to you is to try an experiment for just one week. For that one week, notice how often you tell yourself or others “your best is yet to come.” By comparison during the same week, notice how often you find yourself thinking, “be realistic” or something similar. After running this simple experiment, you may find that you rarely offer yourself or others encouragement. That is very useful information. Maybe it’s time to post a sticky note in a prominent place that has “Your best is yet to come!” written on it. Rather than having an intellectual understanding of this phrase, I’m urging you to experience it in a visceral gut level way. If you do, you may find yourself realizing that “your best really is yet to come!!”