Best Vs Better

Penrose Stairs - the never ending climb

When we try to achieve excellence in anything, we perhaps measure our achievements in terms of the degree of expertise which we have managed to achieve. Many quit when they become good, for them, being good is enough. Those that continue soon become good enough. Eventually many of those too would quit, since to them being good-enough, seems enough. A smaller number continue to grow and evolve, seeking further excellence and they become very good and then they quit. There are few who continue further eventually becoming the best, in their chosen field, and then they too stop evolving any more.

 

But there’s that rare breed of people who just continue without quitting, because they don’t wish to become good, or good enough, or very good and certainly not the very best. They believe in only one thing and that is to be the best of their own-self, without any comparison or scale. They are competing only within and they never quite become the best of their own-self since they know that being the ‘best’ (which is subjective) is a mythical apparition. If they stop when they become best then they would only remain best till someone better comes along (which is bound to happen, sooner than later) and dethrones them from the ‘best’ pedestal. So they continue since the pursuit of self-best is perennial. You will never achieve it, no matter what. But you will keep getting better.

 

Should we pursue that is unachievable! You might be asking yourself right now. While this is a personal choice, either to continue or to stop, I certainly feel that we should continue. You may never reach the pinnacle of that mountain called life, but you will experience amazing vistas and challenges on the way, which would certainly make you that much richer. You may not gain much in this journey, but certainly you won’t lose anything. Even a step up, however small, is still UP. You are not where you were yesterday and tomorrow not where you are today. Is it a better place, only you can be the judge of that. But I feel that life must never become stagnant; then it tends to become stale and eventually rot. We see this so often in the outdoors, a running source of water is always refreshing and vibrant, while a stagnant pool stinks and is full of dirt and often covered with an opaque layer of slime.

 

How can we make our lives similar to the running mountain brook? Just continue on your journey to become the best of your own-self by becoming better and better.

 

Being good is very good, being very good is even better; being the best is amazing but each of these achievements is restrictive as they define a blockage, where one stops growing. Why would we wish to stop growing and evolving while we are still living! Once dead, we have eternity to rest and sleep (or so they say). Why be dead while still breathing!

 

No matter who you are, where you are, your gender, age, physical condition or mental even, I think we all can continue to grow within ourselves, without giving up or quitting or becoming that all defeating attitude: I have evolved enough.

 

While closing I am reminded of two quotes from Sir Isaac Newton, who till his last dying breath, was scribbling ideas upon a piece of paper. If not from my words or actions, I hope that Newton’s words will stir your curiosity and propel you to never stop becoming better.

 

“What we know is a drop, what we don’t is an ocean”

 

“To myself I am only a child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me”