Let me share another personal story with you. Last week my daughter participated in a swim meet at one of the local high schools. Now mind you, my daughter is a self proclaimed, “Non-Athlete.” She enthusiastically participates strictly for the exercise and the social benefits of the sport. It’s hard for me to get my arms around why anyone would take part in a sport without the desire to beat everyone and win everything… but that’s another story. As I pulled into the school parking lot, I noticed the school names on the buses parked out front. I quickly realized that this wasn’t just a normal school vs. school meet, rather the league championships in which seven different schools were participating. The fact that I didn’t know this until walking into the school yard was an indicator of how, in my daughter’s mind… it was just another meet. My girl was swimming in the 200m individual melody event. Just before her heat began, she stepped on to her starting block in lane one of ten. If you know anything about racing, they typically place the best qualifying times in the middle lanes and place the slower times in the outer lanes… like lane one. The starting gun went off and into the water she went immediately going into butterfly form. She slowly but surely lost ground to her competitors and as she came to finish the fourth and final leg, she touched the wall. I noticed she had finished dead last… about 35 seconds behind the winner. I watched her as she wiped the chlorine from her eyes to see the time board. She got a big smile on her face and jumped out of the pool as if it were coming to a boil. She quickly threw a towel around herself and began to walk in my direction. (Funny how kids always seem to know exactly where their parents are at these things) She walked up to me, smiled and said, “Dad, I took 4 seconds off my personal best.” She had her best race… ever. She didn’t care how she placed. She wanted improvement of self. Her personal best. She did it.
Imagine if we took the approach in life, each and every day to have your best day ever. Your personal best. No cares about everyone else and what they are doing. Rather, focus only on you having your best day ever. No concerns about what the Jones’ are doing and certainly no Facebook envy about someone’s luxury vacation destiny. The day is yours… to make your personal best. Sleep right. Eat right. Do right. Pure thoughts and artful words. Enhance those relationships and really get in touch with that spiritual side. Imagine your head hitting the pillow at night, taking a deep breath and saying to yourself… “I did it, today was my personal best.”
When will you have that day? 
