Always Do Your Best: The Fourth of The Four Agreements
Blooming Blog Series
“Always do your best is the agreement that everybody can do. Your best is, in fact, the only thing you can do. And the best you can do doesn’t mean that sometimes you give 80 percent and other times you just give 20 percent. You’re always giving 100 percent — that’s always your intention — it’s just that your best is always changing.
From one moment to the next, you are never the same.
You are alive and changing all the time, and your best is also changing from one moment to the next.
Your best will depend on whether you are feeling physically tired or refreshed.
Your best will depend on how you are feeling emotionally.
Your best is going to change over time, and as you form the habit of practicing the Four Agreements, your best is going to get better.”
We are at the 4th Agreement - Always Do Your Best.
(If you’d like to review, you can check out the 1st Agreement Be Impeccable With Your Word: The First of The Four Agreements, the 2nd Agreement Don't Take Anything Personally: The Second of The Four Agreements and the 3rd Agreement Don’t Make Assumptions: The Third of The Four Agreements.)
Throughout my life, I’ve heard a variation of this phrase when I’ve gone for interviews, goals I was striving to achieve and work I was struggling to do. “Just do your best, Mary, that’s all you can do.”
I realize how true that is.
Each day, we have a best. It isn’t always what we’d like it to be and the good thing is THAT’S OKAY. There are times when we are firing on all cylinders and everything we touch turns to gold. There are other times, though, that we wear mismatched socks and somehow put a salt shaker in the microwave. (True story and to this day I don’t remember why I did that.)
So what if we have a day that isn’t our personal best? If we try to do what is our best for that day, that’s all we need to do. Why is this okay? Because we are not a machine and we can’t always perform at the level we have before. We could be fatigued, emotional, overwhelmed, frustrated or just plain grumpy.
And that’s okay.
Sure, there are times we can push through that. If we’re grumpy, going to the gym can help, for example, and we can change the mood. But sometimes, we just need to do whatever comfort actions we need to do to get through that day.
Isn’t one of the points of life is for us to take care of ourselves? If that is what we need to do more of one day then to push ourselves to our personal brink, then this is self care.
Yes, sometimes we have responsibilities we have to fulfill on days we don’t feel so great. Can we ask some people to work with us, reschedule or even delegate it to someone else? Isn’t that a way to fill a responsibility to yourself? Aren’t you just as important?
“Always Do Your Best” encourages you to reach your best level on that day. Each day will be different. Morning and Afternoon can be different. You could have morning rest and an afternoon where you will kick butt.
In other words, give yourself the freedom and permission to do what you need to do in order to do your best that day. Know that tomorrow is a new day and you can reset the best meter then. Letting yourself meet your best that day takes pressure and guilt off of you. You can express how you feel without worry. You can be what you need for others but most importantly for you. And you may be surprised, what you think isn’t your best is actually amazing.
So, please, do your best each day. But know one day may be different than another. You know yourself best. Care for yourself on the days you are a tired superstar. Striving for your best and knowing every day can be different helps you move forward quicker than exhausting yourself. You will always do your best if you let that best be what it is for now.
Read all four blogs: