Reflection: The Best We Can Do Is... Our BEST!

I used to be a lot more of a follower of sports than I am these days... there was a time in my life when I would have been glued to the TV to watch every possible match of the football World Cup... these days, I make do with the 5-minute highlight reels, after each match.

So, what's my point here?

One of the realities of sports — and pretty much all aspects of endeavors we undertake — is that the best you can do is your BEST, and that particular "best" may not always be enough.

Consider that an Olympic silver medalist is truly a brilliant athlete! They just didn't win the gold medal, no matter how much training, discipline and dedication they may have shown.

Sometimes, our very best may not be enough... but that's also not a reason to beat ourselves up! It doesn't make us "failures."

Everybody has their own version of "their best" and the important thing to always keep in mind is that "your best" and "THE best" can be very different things.

For example, I'm a "decent" writer and a fairly dedicated blogger, but I doubt I will ever be one of those whose every post ends up near the top of the "Trending" feed on Steemit. I realize that, and instead content myself with doing my best to create good/interesting posts, as often as I have the time to... which sometimes might include some lengthy gaps, because... life happens.

With that in mind, I'm definitely not going to "give up" or get disgruntled because I am not part of the Steemit elite.

As so, we can apply similar thoughts to many aspects of our lives... including those where we perhaps are a little too hard on ourselves.

If you've sincerely done your best, there isn't much more you can do! Think about it...

And no, I'm not saying that doing our best is some sort of defense against feeling disappointment. We may have had wishes and dreams... but those wishes and dreams may actually have exceeded our capacity for making them come true, at least to the extent we had hoped for.

For example, I had always hoped that a couple of my online businesses would sustain me through life... but conditions beyond my control prevented that: One quietly declined due to changing tastes and interests in the marketplace; the other (a hobby) was greatly reduced by emerging technology leading people to pursue other interests.

So, even though I definitely did — and am doing — my best, that "best" had a whole new meaning in a world where both my potential market sizes dropped by some 80%. Not my fault that happened... I did my best!

"Comparisons" can be deadly... and depressing.

As human beings, we have a tendency to compare... to a different time period; to other people, but it's not always a good idea!

Consider Steemit, once again. Back in December and January of 2017, I quite often made as much as $200 per post here! But that was at a time of $5.00 Steem and $11.00 SBD... the comparison to now is meaningless, because now we have 16 cent Steem. My blog doesn't suddenly "suck" because my rewards today are a fraction of 2017 levels!

I am doing my best, under current conditions!

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

How about YOU? Do you always do your best? Do you accept your "best" as YOUR best, rather than a comparison to other people's best, or some "worldwide" best? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

(All text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is ORIGINAL CONTENT, created expressly for this platform — NOT A CROSSPOST!!!)
Created at 20221216 19:18 PDT
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