Living n working with other people,
sometimes you have to motivate them.
Maybe as a parent or a coach or a mentor or a manager.
I was wondering what words do we generally use for encouragement.
"Believe in yourself."
"You can do it."
"Do a good job."
"Its not very hard."
"You have to do it, otherwise..."
"See, s/he was also able to do it, so can you."
"If you do this, you'll get that."

And these do work to some extent in different situations.
Most of us generally have doubts about our own capablities,
since there has not been devised a test to measure it.
Unless its coming first in an exam or winning a race,
the rest of the people don't know what is stored in life for "second" or "third" or ...
Since all the kudos go to the "first".
The rest only hear
"Its the effort that counts."
"Winning is not everything."
"At least you came in second/third/..."

But everyone of us know somewhere deep inside,
that we don't do something for the sake of putting effort.
We all put in effort to win.
Cause effort without results is useless.

For measuring some qualities, we have IQ, EQ etc
but whatever they measure is only one aspect.
Taking these quotients to be certification for success or failure is dangerous.
Someone with a small IQ might be good sports player.
Someone bad in sports might do good in painting.
etc etc.

Just like we should give less importance to these quotients,
similarly we should give less importance to comparisons in life
for measuring anyone's success.

As for motivation, why can't we say to anyone
"Don't do a good job, do a great job."
Just writing this line charges me so much that
I think I can do my own work much better.
I have not heard anyone say these words to anyone.
Don't we trust people these days to do great
or do we think that greatness cannot be achieved by ordinary beings.

Great job does not always have to mean in comparisons.
It can also mean what results I got,
knowing what all efforts I put in.
They might not compare with the best results.
But hey, those are my results.
I did my best and got those.

So next time, if someone is doing his/her best,
putting all his/her efforts,
just give him/her little encouragement.

"Don't do a good job, do a great job."