Do the best that you can, ALWAYS!

The glorification of the slacker mentality in the 1990’s was one of the greatest disservices Hollywood ever put on the public. Yes, it may look cool. Yes, it may look good not exerting much effort or trying to achieve anything, but the truth is far different. Those who don’t do their best hurt themselves, and will pay a price for it.

In reality, we all should do the best we can, always! It’s not always easy. Sometimes we make mistakes. Sometimes we begin, rationalize reasons that we can’t succeed and quit. Other times we try and fail.

It’s easy to quit. It’s easy to put a “get by” effort into something. It is much more challenging to push yourself to the limit and beyond of your capability.

When Teddy Roosevelt was leading the troops in Cuba, they complained about not having the resources they wanted to accomplish their mission. He challenged them to, “Do what you can, where you’re at, with what you have.” His leadership changed lives.

During the darkest days of World War II, more civilians were being killed in Britain than British soldiers in the field. The rest of Europe had fallen, and the U.S. had not yet joined the Allies. Sir Winston Churchill lifted the morale of the people repeatedly in his speeches to the country. His charge to, “Never quit, never quit, never quit, never quit, never, never, never, never, quit”, provided the inspiration to hold the country together until help could arrive. The result changed history.

During Apollo 13’s mission to the moon, a tragedy happened in space. For days, hundreds of people worked to find a way to successfully return the crew to earth when logic said that it was impossible. Mission director, Gene Kranz, emphatically stated to his mentally and exhausted team that, “Failure is NOT an option.” When anyone expressed that something couldn’t be done, they were driven to think creatively and make it happen. Again, an individual doing the best he could inspired others to do better than they thought that they could. The result was miraculous.

In most efforts, there is always something else we can do to improve our effort. We should never leave anything that we can do to improve our performance undone. The pain of regret one has after realizing that he could have succeeded with just a little more effort is one of the most painful experiences of all.

Even if a situation looks hopeless or impossible, we should ALWAYS do the best that we can. Who knows when that extra effort may result in an extraordinary result?

© 2007 Richard V. Battle