Doing More Than Your Best

Some pieces of advice drive me absolutely insane. People tell me to “be myself”. What the hell does that mean? Was I being someone else prior to them dropping this wonderfully insightful nugget of knowledge? It’s a fairly useless piece of advice, and it’s only a single example, perhaps one of the most egregious.

What about “do your best”? I even succumb to this one, encouraging people to do their best. Everyone knows to give things their all and try their very hardest. To insinuate that someone wouldn’t know that is almost demeaning.

A notoriously quotable speaker like Churchill would never make the mistake to tell someone to do their best. Not only does he know how ridiculous this advice is, he goes further, extending the command to something much more useful and compelling: “It is not enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required”.

While it may sound absurd at first glance, Churchill’s quote carries a much deeper meaning than the initial cognitive dissonance portrays. When I first read this quote, I thought Churchill might have drank too much scotch and lost some of his eloquence. However, further analysis sheds more light on the meaning.

Sometimes, we need to do our best. Granted, throughout life, we often don’t put 100% effort into things, let alone 110% that mathematically inept motivators encourage, but I digress. I have often given into doing the bare minimum to get by as opposed to thriving and really dedicating myself entirely to something.

Churchill points out that sometimes, doing the best simply isn’t enough. Sometimes we need to dig deep down inside ourselves, and do that which we didn’t think we could. We must push ourselves past what we can do. By operating outside our abilities, we develop the capabilities required and extend our own limits.

There are extraordinary circumstances in which the best just simply isn’t enough. There are times when we need to do far more than our best, the most notable example of which I can think of being serving in the military. For many, it’s more than what they thought they could do. However, in the spirit of service and duty, people can extend their bests. It is possible to dig deep and sacrifice for one’s country to do more than one’s best – to do what is required.

                  

Photo Courtesy of Lockheed Martin

It seems illogical, I will cede that fact. But if we only ever did our best, how would our best ever get any better? If I ran a mile at a certain pace every single time I ran, I would never get any faster. I’d have to extend myself outside of my comfort zone, outside of my capabilities, to extend the range of my “best”. While this is a much less powerful example, it dispels the logical issues with this quotation.

Sometimes, doing your best is enough. In some unique situations, it isn’t. Sometimes we need to do more than our best, and we need to do what is required. Extend yourself, branch out, push your limits, exceed your boundaries, and do what is required.