Striving for success can be an abstract and lofty goal that is hard to grasp. Making it concrete brings us forward. In Tools of Titans, Chris Fussell suggests a way to do so:
I had a great mentor early on in my career give me advice that I’ve heeded until now, which is that you should have a running list of three people that you’re always watching:
someone senior to you that you want to emulate,
a peer who you think is better at the job than you are and who you respect, and
someone subordinate who’s doing the job you did—one, two, or three years ago—better than you did it.
If you just have those three individuals that you’re constantly measuring yourself off of, and you’re constantly learning from them, you’re going to be exponentially better than you are.”
The three people symbolize the past, present, and future of a career. We need to lock in the destination for the future to work backward. We need to focus on the here and now to avoid procrastination and to elevate our game in the present. We must keep our ego in check by seeing how we could have done better. It is not to commiserate about times long gone but to grow. If we would still do everything the same way as we did, we learned nothing.