Stop Doing “Your Best”

I once read a quote that went something like this, “The axiom that says ‘Nothing avails but perfection’ can be spelled p-a-r-a-l-y-s-i-s”.

Something we’ve all been bred to believe is that you must always “do your best”. In theory it sounds like a worthy goal but I’m not so sure it's always useful.

For instance, in my work with entrepreneurs and salespeople I've found that they spend way too much time beating up on themselves about all of the things they are not doing correctly on a regular basis. If this led to positive change, that would be fine. But this tendency often leads to self loathing and procrastination.

I’d like to suggest that you don't have to always do "your best".

Think about it; if you did your best every day that would mean that you would need to make more marketing calls today than ever before- and then you'd have to make even more tomorrow. These would need to be your “best” marketing calls ever and of course tomorrow; they would need to be even better.

You don't have to make your "best" marketing call ever - just make the damn call. Then make another one. And another. As my friend Bob Marshall likes to say, "Pick up the instrument and talk into it".

I don't need to go for my best jog ever today- I need to lace up my freakin' shoes and hit the road for 20 minutes. And do the same thing tomorrow. And then the next day.

Better to keep an even keel and do consistently good work than to get stressed out and hung up on always doing "your best".