Doing your best

What does it mean to you to ‘do your best’? For me, it used to mean doing everything I can in a given situation. After all, if I could have done more, surely, what I gave was not my best?

However, I recently read a book that has helped to shift my perspective on this. In The four agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz delves into the many subconscious agreements we unwittingly make with ourselves in our young lives based on social and cultural norms and expectations—agreements which Ruiz suggests can inadvertently end up running our lives and prevent us from living freely. Ruiz offers replacing them with four new agreements, which at first seem rather basic, but context through a unique perspective reveals their value for application, both personally and professionally.

The four agreements are: be impeccable with your word; don't take anything personally; don't make assumptions; and always do your best. Each of these is worthy of consideration but I want to focus on the 4th agreement, ‘Always do your best’. Ruiz suggests that in any given situation, we must always do our best, not less—and not more. As I have always defined my best as giving my all, I wondered what it would mean to give ‘more than my best’?