Don't try to be the 'Number 1,' instead, try to improve yourself, your skills, knowledge, and mindset, little more each day without the end date. 

When we focus on our personal and professional growth and development each day, when we seek new pieces of knowledge each day, we grow. When we focus on reaching that 'Number 1' spot and we do everything we can to get there, once reached, we stop. Why? Because in our mind our goal has been met and there is nothing more that we need or can do to learn and/or improve on. In a way we check the box in a fixed mindset and nothing more. However, when we focus on learning something new and on improving ourselves daily, our growth and development never stops.

Practice does not make it perfect, but it does make you better. There's no such thing as being perfect at anything, because we as human beings have positive and negative qualities, good and bad habits, we just choose not to talk about the negative ones. So, with that in mind, when we establish a new habit or process, we start of at the beginning when we not that great and still have a lot to learn through practice and repetition. Sure, some of us may have some natural talents, but that still does not make us perfect in whatever activity or task we may engage in. Therefore, even though we could never get perfect in any activity, sport, habit, we can definitely get better each day through hard work and practice, until we reach a level where we feel great about our accomplishment and can help others who would like to reach similar level of still and competence.

We all have different perspectives about the process of effective communication and conflict, just like we all have different ways in which we choose to communicate with others, including how we participate in or avoid conflict.
Conflict is an important part of any effective organization, because, during conflict different perspectives are raised by parties, and solutions are presented to a common problem or disagreement. Therefore, conflict avoidance could have a negative trajectory to business's progress and issue resolution process. Also, conflict avoidance leads to changes in organization's culture and ways of conducting business when we as employees, as business leaders, choose to run away from any conflict or conflicting discussions, which include receiving and giving a constructive and honest feedback to others. By doing so, we are voluntarily silencing ourselves, our thoughts and opinions, and are choosing to follow one-sided perspective or argument of another person, regardless if that perspective is right or wrong, and regardless if such perspective conflicts with our own views and values. What happens as result is the creation of a dysfunctional organization where those who are not afraid to voice their opinions and perspectives on various business processes and functions end up leading the organization and create its dysfunctional, 'what I say goes' culture and way of running the business. Such dysfunctional organization and culture does have a negative and toxic impact on those who choose to avoid conflict and keep their opinions to themselves because they feel powerless and unable to have any impact on how things are done in a company. 
As result, frustration and discontent continues building up inside of us until eventually those who have chosen conflict avoidance approach in the organization where they are employed leave the company at their own will and seek employment somewhere else, they are seeking employment at the company where they hope things would be better and different especially when it comes to organization's culture and business values, a place where they would feel empowered to speak up and share their thoughts and opinions even in conflicting situations. Individuals who seek such change want to feel valued, they want to be heard and respected for their willingness to be transparent and honest while freely sharing their own points of view, versus sharing opinions which were influenced by views of others, regardless if another person or persons are part of the organization's leadership or management. 
When employee feels heard, respected, valued, and supported, he or she can be the biggest cheerleader for such organization and the glue that keeps everything and everyone together while helping to move organization forward. When employees notice that their thoughts and opinions are being taken seriously and are valued by others in organization, they will continue to share their recommendations and points of view, helping to find solutions and better and more effective ways of doing business, which in turn will help business and its employees to thrive long-term.

Many, if not all of us tend to chase material possessions, things that we think we want to have in our possession, so we keep on buying new things just to satisfy our wants. The more we buy, the more we clutter our home and our life with things, the less we see what is truly important to us - people around us who we love and care about. Sure, it is important to understand and appreciate the new technology and what it allows us to do, but do we really need to have latest piece of technology released each year, whether it is new cell phone, or new tv, etc.? We can still stay technologically connected and use technology items available to us at the present moment without spending the last penny on things that we don't necessarily need. Instead, we should focus on those around us - our family, our close friends, and real-life experiences we create together. 

School provides the base of knowledge that we all need to continue our personal development and self-education journey after we leave school. Unfortunately, many people stop their personal development and knowledge seeking journey shortly after graduation. But what we don't realize is that learning and self-education never stops. What we should be doing is actively seeking opportunities to grow and expand our knowledge throughout our life, every day, in order to learn new information, new skills, and to enhance the skills which we already have. We should not be complacent and let procrastination to take over our lives. Learning never stops, remember that.