“Do you best every day.  Live each day as if it’s your Masterpiece.” – John Wooden

Garrison Keillor in his stories of Lake Wobegon talks of Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery Store.  It is where you will not get the best cut of meat but it is pretty good.  We find that humorous but sadly too many people today do think of themselves that way.  They don’t have to be the best at something you just have to be “pretty good” and get by.  Success-Minded People must be more in line with the thinking of publisher Orison Swett Marden who said “Never be satisfied with ‘fairly good’, ‘pretty good’, good enough’.  Accept nothing short of your best.”

 GOOD CAN BE THE ENEMY

What some people do not understand is that we have a responsibility to be our best at everything.  When you settle for less you will never achieve all you can or were created to do.  Stop thinking that all you have to do is get by.  Jim Collins, author of the best seller Good to Great said “Good is the enemy of great.”  If you are willing to settle for just being good at something you will not succeed at anything.

 YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

Let’s look at a few areas that you are responsible for being your best:

• First and foremost is our responsibility to God.  I have seen too many lazy Christians who hide behind a mask of humility rather than put forth the effort to be the best.  Humility is not being less it is taking less credit.  George MacDonald said “It is our best work that God wants, not the dregs of our exhaustion.  I think He must prefer quality to quantity.”  He has given us His best every time; can we give Him any less?
• Second, we have a responsibility to those we serve at work, church, school or wherever.  You have a responsibility to be the best you can be for others.  I love what Tony Robbins said: “You can’t succeed by being good.  That’s what you got paid for.  You can’t succeed by being excellent.  That’s what you are expected to do.  You can only succeed by being outstanding.”  It is a basic success principle: You always give more than what is expected of you.  Always!
• Lastly you have a responsibility to yourself.  Being willing to settle for less than your best lowers your self esteem, stops your ability to learn and makes you lazy.  The only person you are in competition with is you.  Always do the best you know you can do.  That is not the best there is but the best you are.  Remember what the great Og Mandino said: “Always do your best.  What you plant now you will harvest later.”

YOU HAVE MORE THAN YOU USE

                 Success-Minded People know that we never use our full potential but that is never an excuse of willingly not striving for it.  You need to push yourself to be the best you can be at everything you attempt.  Again, I am not saying to be the best there is but the best you are.  Sometimes that may mean being the best there is.  There is something that you do better than anyone else.  But all that is required of you is to be the best that you can be – every time at everything.  You just may surprise yourself on just how good you really are.

 © 2011 John Patrick Hickey