We really don’t. When was the last time you can say you tried your best? And trying your best isn’t doing a good job at something. You can still do a good job without trying your best. Its giving 100 percent. Giving 100 percent is giving until your don’t have anymore to give.
I realized the other day, I wasn’t working hard enough. I thought I was but I came close to losing something important to me and somehow I had a whole lot more to give. All of the sudden I felt smarter. And I had better ideas. But that only happened AFTER I started giving 100 instead of 60 or 80 percent. It really made a difference. And know I’m starting to think…”what could I accomplish in 2014 if I gave everything 100 percent?”. It could probably change my life. I’ve gotten very far giving an average of 70-75 percent of my effort in my endeavors. Thats a lot, but its not all I have.
I think we don’t give 100% because 60% gets the job done most of the time. Whats the point if giving your all when the task only calls for a little more than half of you effort. That makes sense, but I think what this does is condition us to only work at that level. Then when something does does call for 100% of our focus, energy and time we only give 60 because thats what we’ve been used to giving. And when we can’t complete the task with 60 we think we can’t do it, or we aren’t good enough.
In my case, I wasn’t going to take no for an answer and when I did use all of me, I realized I had so much sitting in reserve! Its like having superpowers that you don’t use. So I encourage you to give until you have nothing more to give. Use all your super powers!
Captain A 