I've been in an ongoing dialogue with Mike defining someome's best. He opened the conversation by asking me a couple of weeks ago if I thought anyone really did their best. He went onto say that he sees two people in his life that actually do their best: Brooke and Shannon. I disagreed telling him that many people do their best. That I strive everyday to do my best. To that, he lifted one eyebrow and looked at me sideways. (I did my best not to punch him.) Sometimes he's an ass.
My point of view is that doing ones best really has an intrinsic guage. Even if you don't measure up in someone elses eyes, you very possibly have done your best. For some it is climbing Everest. For others, its simply getting out of bed in the morning. It's accompanied with a warmth inside your body that bespeaks true satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment. No one else can know if that feeling exists or not.
I know there are times when I lag, don't do my best, and try to take responsibility for it and do it again, right. And I don't feel good about it. But to the naked eye it looks petty good. But other times it may look as if not much was done and I have worked my absolute hardest. Sometimes I shine and feel my best and hear words from others that validate my internal guage. It's true that sometimes I really don't give a you-know-what and choose not to do my best. But bottom line, only I really know.
Mike says my point of view is "A Copout."
I say (again) he can be an ass.
:-0 LOL
Posted by: kim | July 18, 2011 at 06:22 PM
"A copout" is a flimsy response, a copout of it's own! I have to agree - one's best unless one dies in the attempt, cannot be properly gauged from outside. My "best" at a particular task on any particular day may be limited by factors such as my state of mind and body, or by what other things must also be done for which time and energy must be husbanded.
Posted by: ellen | July 20, 2011 at 07:43 AM
I'm with you.
Posted by: Lisa Burns | July 24, 2011 at 03:34 PM