The Fallacy of Doing Our Best
by @bethvogt
Success, my friends, isn’t always about giving our best effort.
Sometimes success is doing a little bit less.
Can I get an “amen!”?
Over the years, my family has learned to ask, “What’s the wise choice?” And sometimes the best, wisest choice is to stop trying so hard.
There are times when we stare down the week ahead and think, “I can’t do it all.”
Maybe that’s exactly right: we can’t do it all. We shouldn’t try to do it all. We were never supposed to try to accomplish all that stuff we crammed into every single second of those upcoming days.
Saying yes, yes, yes, to everything doesn’t set us up for success.
No.
We’re setting ourselves up for one spectacular seven-day failure.
After trying yet again to slog through all my myriad of To Do’s and thinking, “I can’t even …” that’s when I stop. Regroup. And remind myself: When at first you don’t succeed, lower the bar.
Didn’t see that coming, did you?
Forget the “try, try, again” mantra we’re all so familiar with. Trying again and again may achieve success.
Maybe.
But trying again and again when we set the bar too high to begin with is a guaranteed formula for exhaustion and frustration.
Am I advocating we become a bunch of quitters? That we walk away from our dreams and our passions? That we ignore our families and our jobs? That we bail on our commitments?
Of course not.
But I am daring to suggest that we put ourselves back into the success equation. That we admit we were never supposed to do it all. That we realize “self-care” is not a buzz word or a bad word. That lowering the bar might allow us to become the person we’ve always wanted to be.
Success can be found by saying both yes and no. Success can happen by both pushing for a goal and choosing to rest.
Too often we make success all about “have to’s” and “more” and “must” and “better” and “best.” Our output today may not be as much as yesterday, but it can still be measured as good because we showed up. We finished . . . and then we took care of ourselves and said, “That is enough for today because there needs to be something of me leftover for tomorrow.”
We are made for both work and rest. To achieve our goals, we need to allow time for both. Today, the bar may need to be set at “rest” for you – and that is a good thing. Victory. Tomorrow may be more about work.
Be successful. Be balanced. Be willing to move the bar higher or lower.
The Fallacy of Doing Our Best: Lowering the Bar to Achieve More http://bit.ly/2HtQ3Zc #success #balance
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'Focus on being balanced. Success is balance.' Quote by @TheRealLailaAli http://bit.ly/2HtQ3Zc #focus #sucess
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