# The Score That Matters by Ryan Hawk, Brook Cupps - Blinkist What’s in it for me? Cultivate sustainable excellence. We live in a world obsessed with numbers – but are we counting what truly matters? As athletes and coaches, the authors intimately understand the pressure of scoreboards, personal bests, and rankings. But they’re hardly alone. From quarterly revenue targets to the number of followers we have on social media, we constantly track, compare, and quantify our achievements. While these external metrics provide valuable feedback, the relentless pursuit of external validation can leave even high achievers feeling hollow despite their success. Luckily, there’s a more fulfilling path to excellence: focusing on internal standards rather than external validation. By shifting our focus from comparison to personal growth, we can break free from the constraints of conventional scorekeeping. In this Blink, we’ll see how prioritizing internal standards over external metrics can create space for what truly matters: fulfillment, impact, and authentic growth. The internal scoreboard What score are you keeping in the game of life? For most people, success means hitting external targets – closing the big sale, breaking the record, or outperforming the competition. But this relentless pursuit of validation creates an exhausting treadmill. A sales manager who hits their targets one quarter faces immediate pressure to exceed them the next. An athlete who breaks a record finds their achievement quickly overshadowed by new competitors. The goalposts keep moving, leaving even high achievers trapped in a cycle of endless striving. What’s the alternative? Andrew Carnegie spoke of “the Judge within” – an internal scoreboard that measures alignment with personal values. This internal metric focuses on process over outcomes, asking questions like, “Am I meeting my own standards? ” and “Is my behavior consistent with my stated values? ” Rather than comparing ourselves to others, this approach emphasizes personal growth and purpose. Consider how this plays out at work. A software developer measuring success purely by external metrics might focus solely on shipping features quickly to meet deadlines. In contrast, one guided by an internal scoreboard might include things like writing maintainable code and mentoring junior teammates, ultimately making a greater contribution to lasting value for their organization. Similarly, a teacher focused on external metrics might teach “to the test,” while one guided by internal standards would focus on nurturing genuine curiosity and understanding in their students. The author’s experience of coaching the Centerville High School basketball team demonstrated the power of this approach. Instead of setting traditional goals like winning specific games or achieving a certain record, he had them focus on “attacking each opportunity with purpose. ” This process-oriented mindset freed them from the psychological traps of an outcome mindset and led them to unprecedented success – including the team’s first state championship and a 45-game winning streak. This last detail also highlights another drawback of external metrics – sometimes external targets put a ceiling on what you can achieve. This internal approach to excellence creates compound effects that ripple outward. Leaders who embrace this mindset don't just transform their own performance – they create cultures where others discover new kinds of potential, catalyzing waves of positive change throughout their organizations and communities. Present moment excellence When the New England Patriots suffered a humiliating 41-14 loss to Kansas City in 2014, sports media declared their dynasty dead. At the press conference, reporters probed for signs of crisis: Was Tom Brady, their star quarterback, too old at 37? Had the team's talent eroded? How would they handle this setback? Coach Bill Belichick's response became legendary. To each question, he responded with the same mantra: "We're on to Cincinnati. " This laser focus on the present moment – on the next practice, the next game, the next play – propelled the Patriots to win the Super Bowl that season, and two more after that. Belichick's philosophy illuminates a deeper truth about excellence: it emerges from an accumulation of present moments, each lived with complete attention. Picture it like this: the future branches out from our current choices. The past remains unchangeable. Excellence is always within reach, yet so is mediocrity, and we choose between them in real time. This links to a powerful approach to thinking about life: E + R = O. Events combine with our Response to create Outcomes. We can't control the events that happen to us, but we can control our response. Take a driver cut off in traffic. The event – being cut off – is fixed. But the response – whether to rage and tailgate, or take a breath and maintain distance – determines the outcome. When we lose this control – when emotions hijack our reactions – we shift from being the driver of our lives to merely being a passenger. Psychologists describe this as the difference between an internal and external "locus of control. " People who believe they largely determine their own well-being – those with an internal locus – tend to have better relationships, stronger finances, and improved mental health. They see themselves as authors of their story rather than victims of circumstance. Living this way can also involve embracing what comedian Jerry Seinfeld calls "garbage time" – those ordinary, unplanned moments that make up much of life. The parent waiting in the car during dance practice, the moments in line at the grocery store, the mundane snatches of conversation over breakfast. These moments, often wished away in anticipation of something “better,” actually contain the raw material of a life well lived. That’s because they contain untapped potential. A morning commute becomes an opportunity to notice the changing seasons or to process your thoughts without distraction. Waiting for water to boil can turn into a brief meditation or stretching session. Even mundane chores like folding laundry can transform into moments of gratitude or problem-solving, the repetitive motion freeing your mind to wander productively. The key isn’t to cram every moment with activity, but rather to bring awareness to that time we typically write off as wasted. Sometimes that just means experiencing the moment fully – feeling the warmth of the sun while waiting for a bus, or really tasting that one sip of coffee instead of gulping it down. These little moments of presence, strung together day after day, create a richer experience of life. Values in action At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Japan stunned Germany with an unexpected victory. But what happened after the game proved even more remarkable. Instead of immediately celebrating, the Japanese team meticulously cleaned their locker room, leaving it spotless, with folded towels and eleven origami cranes alongside thank-you notes in Japanese and Arabic. Meanwhile, their fans stayed behind in the stands, collecting trash from the seats. This wasn't a special show for the World Cup; it reflects deeply ingrained cultural values of respect and responsibility – a commitment to leaving spaces better than you found them. When journalists dug into the archives, they found the same behavior after Japan's heartbreaking exit from the 2018 World Cup, a devastating loss where they'd surrendered a 2-0 lead in the final twenty minutes. This behavior reveals something crucial about excellence: it emerges from unwavering values expressed through specific, observable behaviors. Many sports teams talk about similar principles – teamwork, respect, dedication. The difference lies in how and whether these values translate into consistent actions, day after day. A team may emphasize accountability as a core value, but this only becomes meaningful when players consistently arrive early to practice, openly acknowledge mistakes, and take ownership of their development between games. The gap between saying and doing separates good teams from great ones. Excellence demands pushing beyond what's merely acceptable into what's possible. While it's acceptable to maintain a mostly positive attitude or to meet deadlines just in time, excellence means showing up with energy every day and finishing projects ahead of schedule. In other words, the path to excellence is paved with unglamorous consistency – something Olympic wrestler David Taylor demonstrated throughout his career. He experienced multiple heartbreaking losses in Olympic trials, but rather than throwing in the towel, he kept pushing, kept training, and ultimately secured a gold medal by risking everything on a dramatic takedown in the final seconds of his championship match. It’s those peak moments that society tends to remember and celebrate – tournament victories, breakthrough innovations, gold medals. But these achievements don’t spring from nothing; they rest on a foundation of persistent, often unheralded work. Excellence isn't found in occasional bursts of brilliance, but in the daily choice to do what's difficult when it would be easier to do what's merely acceptable. Process over perfection One counterintuitive truth about excellence? Sometimes the pursuit of perfection holds us back from achieving it. A ceramics teacher devised a fascinating experiment in grading his class. He divided students into two groups, each with thirty days to work. The first group would be graded solely on quality – only one single pot they produced would be graded – their absolute best work. The second group would be graded purely on quantity – they were expected to produce one pot per day, while quality didn't factor into their grade at all. When judges evaluated the work at the end of the month, guess what they found? The best pots – the ones of highest quality – all came from the quantity group. While the quality group had spent their time theorizing about perfection and trying to plan the ideal pot, the quantity group gained repeated practical insights from each attempt, refining their technique with every pot they made. Consider NBA sharpshooter JJ Redick's approach to his craft. Every Sunday during the off-season, he would make exactly 342 shots – twenty from seven specific spots on the floor, plus free throws. His daily schedule was choreographed down to the minute: precise meal times, carefully timed naps, specific duration for hot and cold tub sessions. He even added an extra 25 seconds to his cold tub routine to ensure he never shortchanged the full twelve minutes. His off-seasons were more demanding than the regular season, with six-day workout weeks and multiple daily training sessions. When asked about this intense regimen, Redick's response was telling: he loved the process – not just the results it produced. This distinction between process and results illuminates a crucial truth about excellence. Goals focused on outcomes – winning the championship, earning the promotions – often backfire, leading to decreased intrinsic motivation as people chase metrics rather than mastery. They provide a destination but offer no guidance on the journey; pressure without direction. Process-based goals, on the other hand, fundamentally shift this dynamic. Instead of fixating on outcomes we can't fully control, they focus our energy on specific, daily behaviors that build excellence over time. These process-oriented goals provide clear, actionable direction while liberating us from the anxiety of outcomes we can’t control. When we focus on excellence in our daily process, we often achieve better results. The satisfaction of achievement proves remarkably fleeting. But the fulfillment found in daily pursuit of excellence, in loving the process itself, creates lasting satisfaction. Here’s a powerful exercise for implementing process goals. First, identify the two or three most essential characteristics of high performance in your field. A sales team might value deep product knowledge and relationship building. Next, translate each characteristic into specific daily behaviors. For example, deep product knowledge might translate to reading one industry report each morning. The key is moving from abstract qualities to concrete actions – behaviors you can actually track and perform consistently. When you measure success by your adherence to these processes rather than just quarterly results, you create a sustainable path to excellence that transcends the ups and downs of short-term outcomes. Final summary The main takeaway of this Blink to The Score That Matters by Ryan Hawk and Brook Cupps is that true excellence comes not from chasing external metrics but from focusing on your own internal standards. Instead of getting caught up in the endless pursuit of external validation, focus on concrete daily behaviors that align with your values. Whether you're a coach or athlete, professional or leader, success comes from staying present in each moment and maintaining unwavering standards even in seemingly mundane situations. Remember: it's not about being perfect, but about acting consistently, with purpose, and embracing the process itself. Focus on what you can control, and excellence will follow naturally. Okay, that's it for this Blink. We hope you enjoyed it. If you can, please take the time to leave us a rating – we always appreciate your feedback. See you in the next Blink.