I’m taking another look at another quote image, and this time it’s a great Maya Angelou quote…
Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you do know better, do better.
Maya really did come up with some great quotes – simple, easy to understand, easy to recognise in ourselves, and with power to drive big changes.
I took that photo down in Weymouth in the south west of Britain. I’m not a sun worshipper by any means, but as I was taking a short break, I enjoyed some time relaxing on the beach watching the world go by.
As I took in the sea air and the sound of families playing, the sky suddenly went dark. I looked up and could see that the sun had momentarily disappeared behind a cloud. I could also see that the cloud was moving quickly, and thought it might be an idea to catch the sun appearing again.
So, I laid flat on my back (well, as flat as the pebbles allowed), and took the picture.
Looking back at it now there’s no way of seeing that it’s taken looking directly up. So, although I know it, a stranger looking at the picture would not. I probably could have done better with the picture, but having said that, it’s still ok!
Now, at this point you might be wondering if this is just an article about photography tips! No, it isn’t, but I give that background to introduce the concept that Maya made in her quote.
As I’ve taken more and more photos, I’ve found out more about how simple editing can really enhance the end result – from contrast, to colour saturation, to vignettes – all of these can add ‘pop’ to photos. Throw in some basic composition ‘rules’, and it all makes for a better photo.
I’m still a ‘point and click’ merchant really, I don’t really know what I’m doing with the settings, but that’s ok, for now…
Lets move right away from photography though, and look at how the concept can apply to other areas of life, both yours and anyone else’s as it happens..!
When it comes to how you behave, are you doing your best? Do you treat others as your best?
Do you treat *yourself* as your best?
Are you living as the real, authentic you, pursuing worthy goals? Are you living in a healthy way, or are you damaging yourself?
Phew, that’s a whole load of questions!
A lot of people, and I include myself in this, will look at those questions, and won’t take long to come to the conclusion that no, they aren’t always doing their best.
I understand that doing our best on an ongoing permanent basis can seem overwhelming, but I’m more talking about if we know that in fact it’s *not* doing our best that’s the default setting.
We don’t treat others as our best. We don’t treat ourselves as our best. We’re unhealthy, we’re lazy, we can’t be bothered, we’re plodding along in a job we don’t like, in a relationship that drains us.
It’s not our best.
The question then is, why? Why are we not doing our best?
Habit, momentum, and laziness.
Nature, as a rule, will generally move towards entropy as and when it can. This is why the sand in the desert gets blown into sweeping dunes, when it could be blown into sandcastles instead!
As humans, we can fall into this. If doing our best seems like too much effort, then it can be easier to do less. Once this becomes the norm, it becomes a habit, and the momentum we take forward is one of laziness, that it doesn’t matter. As we go forward like this, everything around us will settle into the sweeping dunes instead of the sandcastles.
We’re not deserts though, as humans we have the power of independent thought which means that we can go a different way.
If we know we’re not doing our best, we can decide that we *will* do our best. Not because anyone else is watching, but because we know it’s the best of us. We can act with integrity towards others, and integrity towards ourselves.
It might be a slow process to move away from the habits of laziness, but slowly and surely, we can change those habits, change the default setting to one of doing our best. We won’t do our best all the time, but in time we will notice ourselves acting at a level which is upwards towards our best.
Others around us will notice it too, and the momentum around us swings. This new behaviour becomes the expectation, and we’ll either lift those around us, our find ourselves drawn to a new crowd with similar expectations.
An inevitable consequence of this, is that we will want to *know* better, which is the second part of Maya’s quote…
If we are asking whether we are doing our best, and we answer that we want to, that we think we are, then it follows that we need to find out firstly what our best actually is, and secondly, could our best be better?
In most cases, and again I include myself in this, the answer is that yes, our best could indeed be better!
We have to push ourselves to do it. We have to take action to seek out the knowledge, and then we have to take more action to put that knowledge to work, and this pushes up the level of our best.
The high achievers in any field have done this. They’re doing it today.
If you’re reading this thinking that you don’t want to be a high achiever, that you’re only interested in your ‘everyday’ life, than that’s fine – it still applies!
Do your best in this ‘everyday’ life of yours, and look to learn how to do it better. It can have a massive impact.
I did mention earlier that it can lift others around you too. I tend to prefer the idea of leading by example here. Yes, you can have conversations with people when it’s clear they are not doing their best, but there are some dangers here…
You might not know that they *aren’t* doing their best! It could be that your level of knowledge is simply higher than theirs at the present moment, so as far as they’re concerned, it is their best.
In that case, you can pass on the knowledge that can lead them to move the level of what’s their best , but another danger comes in that their habit of doing less, their laziness, their lack of integrity or desire, will rub off on you.
That’s not being glib, it’s well known that the people we surround ourselves with have an impact on us, so we do need to surround ourselves with those acting their best, or at least striving to. Better to lead by example, and if others see a different level and want to know if you can help them, then you can go all in to lift them up – this approach frees you from negativity, and also moves you away from a ‘preachy’ approach to others.
Remember, ultimately we’re talking here about you doing your best, you trying to know better so you can do better, we’re not talking about other people.
So, look around you, at the results of your actions – have you been doing your best? Are you dong your best right now? If not then why not, and wouldn’t it be worthy of you to put Maya Angelou’s quote to work for *you?*…
Do your best until you know better, then when you do know better, do better!
Ok, as ever I’d love to hear what you think, do leave a comment!
‘Til Next Time,
Health & Happiness,
Gordon
P.S. If you’d like to make some changes in line with your best, then download my free 8 step goal achievement formula!
