I have always been just an average basketball player. I join a few pickup games with my friends when the opportunity arises, and I shoot the ball around when I’m looking for a short workout.

The challenge I face when playing is not a lack of confidence nor the willingness to play the game. It’s the expectation that I put on myself - that I should be good at it. Hey - I’ve been playing competitive basketball since I was in middle school, I should be right? And my ego loves to play games, trying to tell me I am better than my competition. Everytime I win (due to actually ‘good’ players), my mind tells me that I must be getting better. But in reality, I’ve probably only learned two or three new moves in the past 6 years. And when I go in with this mentality that I should be something, the ending result everytime is that I horribly lose when it comes to game time.

So two weeks ago, I tried out this experiment. I told myself the truth, that I’m not really good at this game and I don’t have too much skill. Was that hard to let go of? Absolutely, but I was already losing anyways so what was the hurt in trying it out. Did it make me better? Surprisingly yes.

The same thing has shown up for me when it came to sales in our business or writing on our blogs. When I set the expectation that I should be good due to past experience or something I was taught, I was at my lowest sales rates ever and I didn’t write a single post.

Its funny how our ego feeds off having to be someone/something compared to who or what we are. And the opportunities that we’re able to let go of this expectation, we finally play a game where we have an advantage.