If you study Ancient Greek mythology or theater, you will encounter the term 'hubris.' Hubris has come to mean excessive confidence or pride, and arrogance. Hubris can cause a person to do foolish things.
I recently thought about this because I was listening to song that I recognized from the original Karate Kid soundtrack. The song is called "You're the Best" and the chorus states: "You're the best! Around! Nothing's gonna ever keep you down." I argue that this is a bad message, but a message that is too often repeated and it leads to overconfidence, and overconfidence leads to failure. This overconfidence is fed by input – moms, dads, grandpas, grandmas, friends and fans telling us, "oh, you are the best." Unfortunately, statistically this is simply not true. If you play a sport, you discover quickly that there is always someone quicker, stronger, or more skilled. Likewise for scholastic competitions and mock trial teams – someone is smarter or quicker with an answer. It is humbling.
Back to Karate Kid, Daniel LaRusso (the Karate Kid) was not the best. Johnny Lawrence from Cobra Kai was bigger, stronger and more experienced, but he had hubris and Daniel trained harder and tried harder. This is the key to victory – not to be overconfident and believe you can, but to do the things to win. Do not get caught up in the hype that you are the best, rather do the things that cause you to be the best version of you. In Cub Scouts, we recited the motto of "Do Your Best" and across Scouting we pledge our honor to do our best when we say the Scout Oath. We do not say that we are the best. Scouting's founder Baden-Powell said, "We never fail when we try to do our duty, we always fail when we neglect to do it." Do your best, but stay humble.
On my honor, I will do my best.