When I was a boy my father said to me, "be the best at everything that you do." I know for certain that he meant to be better than anyone else at everything that I did.. As I've gotten older I've realized that my father meant well, but he was a bit over the top. When I was younger I didn't try certain things because I knew that I couldn't be THE BEST.

I know that pops wanted me to always try my best, I get that, but being the best at anything that I did was unreasonable and created much pressure. I remember a specific example when I was asked by my football coach to join him along with a few other high school friends and come to and participate in a gymnastics seminar that a gymnastics coach from another school was conducting.

The gymnastics coach was good at what he taught and intense. He had some of his gymnastics athletes along with him to demonstrate and teach us. For some reason he assumed that my friends and I were going to catch on quickly. Quite to the contrary we didn't catch on at all and the thought of flying through the air was not appealing at all and looked rather dangerous.

I believe that I could have done better with a little practice, but because of the obvious anger and frustration of the gymnastics coach with us for not being able to do the exercises, I had absolutely no interest in trying it any further.

It's good to realize our limitations. It's not only good, but it shows a level of intelligence and awareness. Even though there are things that we may not be good at at all, there are others that we are very good at. It's good to know our strengths and weaknesses and it's also good to try things just for the sake of trying them. We may not be the best at everything that we do but we can benefit from being involved and from the education and understanding that we gain.

We need to be happy with trying our best. We can only do what we can do. With practice and determination we can often times improve on our best, but it is still our best. Frustration and loss of interest comes any time that we begin to worry too much about the other people around us and begin to wish for the skills that they have. Using other people to motivate us to bigger and better things is fine, but remember to use that motivation for the right reasons. It's not so that you can be better than them or have more than them, it's so that you can grow to be your absolute best.

Hold yourself to a high, reasonable standard,

Fred Nicklaus