One thing people do too much of is putting pressure on themselves… this is NOT about that! Doing your best is often misunderstood and therefore induces a lot of unneeded pressure and stress.
Consciously or subconsciously most people have an idea of what they are capable of. This is usually based on a really good day and increases in expectation by the more productive a day you have or how often you have them. Once we have that standard, we hold ourselves to it on a daily basis and this is simply impossible to live up to, creating a lot of disappointment and stress in our lives.
Our best is different on different days. Some days we can sprint, some days, jog, some days, walk, some days, crawl; and some days, our best is just staying in bed all day crying. It’s okay, we live in an experiential world and we’re supposed to be experiencing different things at different times.
We must stop judging ourselves for not being at peak-production all the time… it’s just not possible. Most people look over their day and list the things that didn’t go right or what they should have done in a judgmental way. Of course, it’s fine to learn from our past but we’re not supposed to be judging and shaming ourselves for it. You can look back briefly to see if there’s anything to learn from the day as long as it’s with the understanding that you KNOW you did your best that day.
If you put in the effort and didn’t intentionally screw things up… that’s enough! You win! That is enough to accomplish all your dreams and desires… simply putting in some effort to the best of your ability for that particular moment and not intentionally trying to screw things up.
Your success is based more on how you feel about yourself, how much self-love and self-respect you have, how much confidence you have, how much stick-to-itiveness you have and putting one foot in front of the other on the path to your goals. All these things are enhanced by understanding your best is good enough and varies from day to day. And all these things are damaged by putting undo pressure on yourself and holding yourself to a standard that can’t be reached.
So cut yourself a break! Do your best in each particular moment knowing that it can and will vary depending on the day and the circumstance. Know that you are enough as you are.
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