I ran a 51.5 second 400M.
Not bad for a farm kid in a small town.
I remember moving to the small country town. I walked down to the track practice. Introduced myself to the coach. I said, "Hey, what do I need to do to get on the track team?". He laughed and said "What do you do?"
I told him I was fast but liked to run distance as well.
He said "Do you think you can run around this track in 60 seconds or less?" (it was dirt lol)
I said "Sure".
He looked at me and said "Ok - let's see it"
I was in street clothes. No warm ups. He got out his stop watch and a whistle. He said "ready?"
I said "Yep!"
He said "Go".
58 seconds later I finished to a bunch of "Holy shit! He did its!"
I won conference and district races. Even got to go to states. But, I met the kids who can run the fucking thing in 57 seconds.
Now, how a person deals with that is a personal thing. For me, I used to count 4 seconds in my head. That was the difference between me and the fastest kids in the entire state. I was satisfied because I didn't leave anything on the table. Maybe I could have shaved off a tiny bit more time. But, I was never going to be the fastest. Good enough.
One more quick story about performance and striving for being "the best".
Switch gears to mountain climbing. I have climbed in some tough places in the alps. I have climbed with climbers who are recognized as being great. Am I great?
I can tell you what I was great at. Seconding.
I could get up a pitch and clean shit up faster than most people.
I was also fearless. Fun to be around. Mountain smart. Good mechanically. Knew my knots. Tireless.
Did I get picked because I was a "great climber"? Nope. But as a support guy, I was tough to beat. I did not care about trying to climb the route without "cheating". I was not that vain. It's tough. Fuck it. I am not going to waste 1/2 hour falling and retrying a move just because I don't want to touch protection. Fuck that. That's for the lead climber. Me? I am grabbing that piece "cheating" and getting past the thing that is beyond my ability.
The payoff? I got to climb some amazing routes and spend time in some awesome places that few people get to experience. Good enough for me.
Everyone should know their limits and accept them. The experiences and effort are far more valuable than the recognition of #1.