As you get Better the game gets Bigger.

A mentor introduced me to this concept early in my career “As you get better the game gets bigger”.

There is evidence of this all through life; as a father watching my daughter grow and learn each phase in development leads to a greater desire to achieve more. First, she rolled, then she wanted to crawl, when she could crawl, she wanted to walk, now she’s walking she wants to run, each achievement being met with even greater desire to test her capabilities.

Our formal education also relates, we start in preschool, then on to grade one, two, three etc, etc. Each grade serves a purpose in developing our current skillset, it’s hard, challenging but necessary to prepare us for the unknown to come. There is also a reason the desks are so small in grade one, you are not meant to stay in the one spot for too long, some people take a little longer yes, but we all need progress leading to a greater unknown to once again conquer.

How does this apply to work? Well like a lot of business owners I know, I didn’t initially set out to run a business at the start, I’m sure a lot of people do but not me. Over time, I come to realise it was a necessary process in my career.

I started in a sale role for someone else company, within 3 weeks was the number 1 salesperson that week, I would be lying if I didn’t say I felt quite proud, but it didn’t mean I was the best person in the company; there were others playing a much bigger game that I wasn’t even aware of until I was. As I got better the game got bigger! I then took on more responsibility managing sales teams, once again we made it to number one, and guess what, the achievement although satisfying left me wanting more, the game once again was getting bigger. Now as a business owner I’m chasing greater achievements to “level up” and take on the next big game.

There is a key message here to make you aware of, the game is always evolving, and so are you, sometimes without even seeing it. Soon what you once thought was difficult now comes with ease. Congratulations you’re getting better which means the game needs to get bigger, so don’t fight it, rather embrace it, as its progress and necessary to feel fulfilment in what you do. My advice is attacking it like a child, without hesitations, you may look like a baby giraffe taking its first steps currently but soon you’ll have it with ease and be looking ahead to a new destination you weren’t even aware of.
- Mike Lambert