Every Good Book Says Something About Doing Your Best.
Over the years, I’ve had a chance to read many “Good Books”
of the Religious variety. Of the things they have in common: They all say
something about always doing your best.
Sage advice put down in print as soon as writing was
invented.
Nowadays most of us strive for this, yet complicate our
success with self-limiting behaviors. Many of these self-limiting behaviors are
obvious and many are subtle. But the effect is the same; We strive to achieve our
goals, meet our responsibilities and represent human-kind at the highest level,
only to frustrate our efforts with falling short time and again.
Why?
One reason, I think, is that the admonition to “Do your best”
was first uttered at a time when the sharpest arrow was still jagged. Nowadays
we live in a world that we perceive as precise and the gold standard of doing
your best is to seek perfection.
In the old days they understood the concept of “Good Enough”.
They had to. They made wheels out of rocks. I think it began to get really hard
for many of us to manifest unbridled enthusiasm and dogged perseverance around
the time of the Industrial Revolution. Arrows started getting really sharp by
then.
Today, the concept of “Good Enough” seems relegated to
Baseball. If you were successful at achieving your goal three out of ten times,
would you consider yourself successful? Probably not. Get three hits for every
ten at bats consistently in Baseball and you will be enshrined in the Hall of
Fame. Football, on the other hand is as precise as surgery. A game of inches
they like to say. Now I ask you, which sport is more relaxing to watch?
So along with self-limiting behaviors that interfere with goal
achievements and tarnish our self-confidence, add stress. The stress of seeking
perfection, while all the time being an imperfect being.
How do we cope?
We learn to soften the blow of falling short with cushions
made of rationales, excuses and emotionally deadening behaviors (like
compulsiveness and boozing). These coping skills come on slowly through our
lives…But by the time we’re middle-aged, they are so deeply ensconced in our
psyche, they are dark habits that seem impossible to break.
How do we break them?
We learn to identify the dark habits first of all. The
obvious ones are pretty easy to identify. The subtle ones are more
sophisticated. They seem like an essential element of our character. But they’re
not. Whether our dark habits are obvious or subtle, they share the same
essential trait: They’re the cushioning beneath Failures and Rejections
compensated for.
So how do we identify our dark habits and then, once
recognized, how do we eradicate them? The answer is, through a process. Like
sharpening an arrows blade, we can strive to sharpen our whole self to become a
most excellent representative of human-kind capable of achieving success.
Many of the tools we need to sharpen ourselves can be found
on Bookshelves. Since the original Good Books were written soon after writing
was invented, other Good Books have been published on the very topic of rising
above the bondage of our dark habits.
I’ve recently had the opportunity to read one such Good Book…and
I think it’s terrific. It’s the reason I’m writing to you now. The book is
called; Fire Your Excuses. You can find it at Barnes & Noble or on
Amazon. Dark Habits like to wear invisibility shields. You can’t catch them if
you can’t see them. Well the authors of Fire Your Excuses were smart
enough to address that little subterfuge by creating a Self-Assessment Survey.
That’s how I got hooked on their book. The Self-Assessment Survey is online and
free. I encourage you to take it at FireYourExcuses.com. After I took the
survey, I started reading the book. Nicely structured, intelligently written
and most importantly, a well-designed strategy for becoming “Good Enough”,
first of all…by Firing Your Excuses!
Now obviously, my sentiments regarding this book are relative.
I see nicely structured, someone else sees imprecise. I consider it
intelligently written, someone else thinks it’s stupid. I appraise it for its
well designed strategy, someone else sees the game plan as deeply flawed. All I
can say is; I like baseball.
What I’m looking for from you is this. Read this book and
add your insights to our blog. Let’s start a conversation on self-limiting
behaviors so we can help each other over-come them. Tell us what other books
you’ve read that have helped you climb to the next level. We owe this to our
kids, our world and to the Great Writer of those original Good Books that we
continue to read today.
Calm Seas,
Rudy Gartner
Sagestones.net
