Never Stop Doing Your Best

I’ve got a quick question for you: Is the best you can do ALL you can do? Let’s say you go to the gym tomorrow and decide to see how many consecutive push-ups you can do in a row.

Available Versions: Article, Podcast

Stream below | Listen on iTunes

You’re able to crank out 20 push-ups — nice work!

Now, does this mean 20 push-ups is all you’ll ever be able to do?

Absolutely not…

If you rest a bit, you can crank out 20 more. And if you rest a little more, you can crank out 20 more.

Now, how’d you go from 20 to 60? Was it magic?

I think not, amigo.

Don’t you think that if you were to continue this pattern — WORK→REST→WORK — that it would be possible to progressively get up to 75 pushups?

Of course!

How’d you go from 20 to 75? Is it magic?

Well, you can call it magic, you can call it mojo, you can call it a goddamn miracle if you want to…

It all boils down to this:

If you never stop doing your best, you continually improve upon your best.

All progress can be broken down to our disciplines and our habits: what are we willing to DO today—to grow, to move forward, to get just 1% better than we were yesterday?

You begin the process of progress with one simple step…

Doing the best you can with whatever you can, starting now.

How do you get better?

How do you skill-up and level-up in life?

How do you make progress and accomplish your greatest ambitions?

You start with doing what you can do.

Once you’ve done that, you can keep working towards becoming progressively better and better—towards making the best you can do tomorrow just a little bit better than the best you can do today.

Do the best you can with whatever you can, starting now.

Every time you accomplish something, and follow it up with adequate rest and renewal, you’re preparing yourself for even greater accomplishment in the future.

But here’s a quick word of caution: don’t rest for too long.

Why? Because resting too long leads to neglect and procrastination. If we rest longer than we need, the weeds take over the garden.

Our objective in life isn’t rest, it’s action…

Have you ever heard of anyone who’s purpose in life is to rest? Of course not!

Children understand this naturally. My three year-old daughter, Nora, is in motion almost all day long — she constantly wants to be in the act of DOING.

She’ll go, go, go until it’s time for rest and renewal. And mind you, she doesn’t want to rest; she has no desire to nap. She does it out of necessity… She does it because her real objective — whether she knows it or not — is to recharge and get back to playing or swimming or riding her bike.

And when she takes that time for rest and renewal, she takes exactly how much she needs — seldom more, seldom less — before naturally rising and going back into a mode of movement, of action.

She takes time to rest and renew as a necessity, not as an objective. She knows that the objective of life isn’t rest. It’s action. It’s progress

How many of us can say the same of ourselves?

Are you resting longer than you need to?

Are you distracting yourself with a bunch of shiny things to avoid confronting that which you know you need to do?

Are you getting up day after day, telling yourself that “today will be the day” that you’ll do X… but somehow end up with nothing to show for it at the end of the day?

Stop letting fear waste your life and wither you away.

You’ve rested enough.

Stop cowering and start empowering yourself to take action.

Start empowering yourself to get up off that couch and get going towards the path of progress.

Start empowering yourself to share your experience and expertise.

Start empowering yourself to share your knowledge and wisdom.

Start empowering yourself to create and contribute.

Start empowering yourself to do the work you have been called to do.

Start empowering yourself to do something in the name of progress… Because doing something — however small — day after day after day, adds up and generates momentum.

And with this momentum comes courage and creativity. With this momentum comes commitment and contribution. With this momentum comes excitement and energy. Desire and ambition. Faith and forward-motion. With momentum comes personal power and perseverance.

With momentum, you can transform your entire life.

So my challenge to you today, is to stand up and decide to join that minuscule percentage of the population that says NO to half-assing their lives away and instead chooses to say YES to becoming a little bit better everyday and making progress.

Make a decision to join that tiny slice of the population and discover what your best truly is.