My best round of golf is a 74 (+3 over par).

My best run/walk splits for over four miles is 10 minutes, 59 seconds.

My best year in business was 2019.

We should all know what our best is in the activities and events we compete in, whether they be personal or professional. Not only should we know what they are, but we should also be striving to achieve and exceed them.

One of my recent guests on the podcast was Gary Furr. Gary is a business expert and turnaround specialist based out of Portland, OR. During the interview, Gary spoke about the importance of measuring yourself against your best year ever.

He said that too many businesses measure their current year revenues, expenses, and profitability against the previous year or two. He said we should also always be comparing our best year ever – no matter when it was. Gary says, “regardless of the reason, you did something right. Find out what it was and repeat it.”

Business is a balance of art and science. The art is innovation, creativity, daring, confidence, risk taking or aversion, and even good old “gut feeling.” The science is measurements of numbers. In order to track your progress (or even your decline), you must constantly be measuring yourself against your best.

I’ve known Gary for years and this isn’t the first time I’ve heard him say this. A couple years ago, I started doing it myself. It turned out that 2019 surpassed all other years and became my new measuring stick. While 2020 was an off-year due in part to the split-finger fastball the pandemic threw us, the “art” part – innovation, creativity, pivot – all are helping 2021 be measured favorably to 2019.

What about you?

Go find your best year ever in business and make sure you’re comparing this year to it.

Go find your best activity “score” (golf, racing, horse riding, weightlifting, etc.) and strive to exceed it, regardless of when it was.

Incremental and consistent growth toward goals both personal and professional will mark your path in progress, growth, and success.

And that way, your “best” should always be just the year or time before….

Quote of the Week:

“The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.”

~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr. (20th century American author)

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