“Thing I’ve come to realize #2”: It’s not just about doing your best, its much
more than that.
The concept of doing your best all around, teachers,
parents, coworkers, and peers use the phrase “do your best” on a daily basis as
when motivating others. When I stopped to think about it I realized that many
people sell themselves short by “doing their best”. For example, when someone is doing a task and
asked why it is not being done a certain way or in a certain timeframe, a
common response is, “well… I’m doing my best.”
That statement may be true some of the time, but I am willing to wager
that many people say it as an excuse for laziness. Personally, when I think of
doing my best, I think of finishing a task, but not only that. I think of finishing
it to a higher standard than my own, in minimal amount of time, and having a
good attitude about it.
When I stopped and examined what my
expectations for “doing my best” were, I realized that I was including a higher
standard that was not my own into the equation. If I was left to my own devices
I would probably do an average job, take my good, sweet time, and depending on
the job, have a crummy attitude while doing it. “My best” isn’t really “my best”
if viewed this way because I have the capacity to do so much better (and so do
you!). This is why I came to the conclusion that it’s more than doing your best. I believe that some sort of higher standard
needs to be put into practice or we are not pushing our personal envelope. In
my case, Christ is my motivation to perform at a higher level (if you want to
know WHY Christ motivates me, ask). Some people insist on constantly comparing
themselves to their peers, national averages, and worldly standards (which I am
guilty of as well), but I want to challenge all of us to seek motivation through
God’s unfailing love, not by people’s judgments of you. To be quite frank, YES, this does take
effort, but the reward of hard work is far greater than the temporary relief of
our apathy.
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