How Do You Grade Yourself

Quick note before we jump in. The Optimistic Outlook book is now available on Amazon. It brings together the best posts from the last year of this newsletter. If you or someone close to you enjoys short inspirational stories, it makes a perfect Christmas gift.

How Do You Grade Yourself

Dan Lanning, Oregon’s football coach, speaks my love language. He is one of the most creative, inspirational, and competitive coaches in the game. He wins, he leads, and he does it with energy that is impossible to ignore.

But during a press conference, he asked a question that made me stop and think.

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“The only thing you get graded on in your job is winning and losing. But personally, how do you grade yourself?”

Then he continued.

“So the way I grade myself is this. Are these young men walking out the door better humans? Are they going to be great fathers and husbands? Are they going to be people you want in your community?”

Mic drop.

Yes, the wins matter. Without wins, he does not get the chance to lead or evaluate himself this way. But the wisdom in his answer is gold. He carries a deeper scoreboard of himself than the one the world sees.

So it begs the question for you and me. How do you grade yourself? Here are a few ideas to consider.

Do the people around you feel encouraged?
Are you becoming more patient and more generous?
Are you living your values when life is easy and when life is stressful?
Are you setting an example that your children or your team would want to follow?
If you’re younger, are you setting an example that your friends should follow?

You get to define how you grade yourself in life. If you do not define it, the world’s definition of success becomes your only metric.

Your challenge today is to choose a deeper way to grade yourself at this stage in your life. Choose a scoreboard that reflects who you want to become, not just what you accomplish.

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Real success begins with how you grade yourself.