#BetterYourBest

This year is my daughter's first year doing competitive gymnastics. She is 8 years old and a level 3 JO gymnast at Success Gymnastics in Ames, Iowa. It has been quite the whirlwind, which of course I'll dig into later, but wanting to start this new blog with a bang, so I thought I'd start with our team motto.

Each season the team gets a motto - this year it's #BetterYourBest, and I am absolutely ecstatic. R has never really done anything competitive (or on stage). R is also a complete perfectionist (which she may or may not get from me), and that can be incredibly tough. So each week, when I ask her what her goal is, and she replies, "Better your best," I do a mini happy dance inside. Why? Because my daughter is learning a lesson that many of us don't learn until well into adulthood. Doing your best, and then working to do better - where your only opponent is you - is all I want for my kids. I want them to always work to do their personal best, and always push to be better. It doesn't matter if you are THE best, but never settle for just "good enough."

We've been fortunate this season, and we've gotten to see R "better her best" at every meet so far in one form or another, and is now setting more concrete goals for herself, including joining the "9.5 club," hitting 4 for 4 events with personal best scores (bettering her best), and being able to move up to level 4 next year (she's working hard on her cartwheels on the beam!).

What are your team mottos?