How Can You Always do Your Best?

Unique Perspectives: How Can You Always do Your Best?

By Kim Stevens

I recently reread The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and it reminded me of a unique perspective I absolutely love. 

The Four Agreements, based on ancient Toltec wisdom, are: 

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word

2. Don’t Take Anything Personally

3. Make No Assumptions

4. Always Do Your Best

And there in number four, I found that really cool reminder: Always do your best. 

In the book, “always do your best” is a concept separated from quality, and requires doing no more (and no less) than whatever “best” means for you. Ruiz explains that when you “overdo” your best, you’ll run out of energy and your task will take longer than it should. On the flip side, when you do “less than your best,” you potentially face those self-deprecating, accomplishment-thwarting emotions like frustration, guilt, judgment or regret.

So really, according to Ruiz, my goal should always be to do my best without over-exerting myself or under-whelming what I’m capable of achieving. 

And I LOVE that! 

I’m so glad I read this book again because I definitely forget about the balance – that the precarious state of “best” can be missed both by doing less and by doing more. 

Over-doing my best is a kind of ancient Toltec version of “working harder not smarter.” Under-doing my best, as the book explains, can cause me to unfairly judge myself. I also find that the resulting self-reproach and lack of self-esteem has a subtle way of creeping out and spoiling everything that happens next. It’s like a personal poison, spilled from the insidious aftermath of doing less than my best. 

The final point about this concept of “always doing my best” is that it’s a relative scale based on a whole lot of varying factors and not a definitive state of being. My best looks different when I’m feeling sick than it does when I’m feeling healthy. It also looks different when I’m tired versus when I’m energized. My “best” took on a different meaning after my dad passed away, than it does today.

And as “my best” evolves with the unpredictabilities of life, I’m reminded that the core idea remains: I must ALWAYS do no more or no less than my best. This way, I can live without self-reproach or criticism, and with unlimited happiness, ease and joy.