***You are Doing Your Best

If you follow sports you have noticed that top athletes do not always perform consistently. A world class runner may break a world record in one competition and then not even place in the same event one week later. A champion weight lifter might break a record and then be unable to lift that same weight for several workouts.

These are professionals, champions, stars - why can't they demonstrate peak performance every time? Aren't they giving it their all each time? Well, they are doing their best.

There is nothing wrong. Their best might be different each time they work out or compete. The same is true for you. You go into work and you give it your all. Sometimes your all produces different results. You are doing your best. Your best is different every day. At any given time you can only do your best. Your best varies and is dependent on many criteria including:

• Your physical condition
• Your mental condition
• Your environment

(Hint: This is why in past articles we have discussed the importance of your physical condition, your mental condition and your environment.) To be able to do your best you must support yourself in the best possible way, good sleep, good nourishment, good surroundings and a positive mental outlook.

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On any given day you can only do your best and your best is different from day to day. At the end of the day, if you know you really did your best, you shouldn't worry. But saying, "Well hey, I did my best" is not meant to be used as an excuse. YOU know when you did your best; you know when you did not.

Your best looks like this:
• You jumped into a task enthusiastically with every intention of doing a great job.
• You lost yourself in whatever you were doing.
• You truly cared about the outcome.

Your best does not look like this:
• You worked on something with a feeling of dread.
• You spend your work week wishing for the weekend - every week!
• You did something for someone out of a sense of obligation and not out of a sense of giving.

Truly doing your best allows you to make the other agreements part of your life. What other agreements? The agreements from 'The Four Agreements', by Don Miguel Ruiz. Not many of us can just wake up one morning and do a perfect job being impeccable with our words, not taking things personally and not making assumptions.

Luckily you have the agreement, always do your best to help you. When you know you really did your best you can just skip the part of your day when you beat yourself up because you are not perfect. You are going to have an off day.

What if your boss is crabby during a meeting and for some reason today you decide that crabbiness is all about you? Well, if today you are doing your best and you still take it personally, guess what? Let it go. Today you did your best. So relax and move on. Put all thoughts of failure and judgment aside. You did your best. Tomorrow you will do your best again.

That's all anyone can ask of you and that's all you should ask of yourself.