All We Can Do Is Our Best!

Where do you find inspiration? Do you look at the leaders in your field and think to yourself that you want to be just like them? Or do you find inspiration in simply wanting to do as well as you can?

Sometimes, I think we misplace our ambitions a little bit.

What I mean by that, is that we compare ourselves to those who have really made it and then end up feeling like we have somehow failed because we can't live up to their standards.

It's easily done! After all, we live in a world where striving to be the best is built into virtually every aspect of existence, and we're surrounded by societal messages telling us that "we can have it all!"

Whether we're getting it from movies, or advertising, or social media influencers, there's always a message to remind us that we can do more, in order to achieve more, in order to have more.

You could even consider a microcosm like our own Steemit community: It would not be unexpected that a newcomer might arrive, see the users getting rewarded hundreds of Steem every day... and end up leaving because they feel like they failed when their results were nowhere close to the elite performers.

That is the risk/downfall of comparing ourselves to others, and using their results as a metric for our success.

Perhaps I had an easier time than most in learning to set my own standards for excellence, rather than comparing myself to others... because I am — by nature — not super competitive.

My sense of competitiveness is mostly with myself rather than with others. Even when I was a distance runner, I competed with my own times, not with those of others.

I believe that what matters is the most is doing our best, and giving ourselves permission to let that be good enough. After all, setting goals for ourselves that lead to invariable failure is not psychologically healthy... and might even lead to depression and worse...

Along with this comes the acceptance that sometimes "our best" may not be the same as winning at something... but if we genuinely did do our best, then that is good enough. That we didn't win does not make it a failure.

So keep on doing your best, at whatever level tgat might be!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week ahead!

How about YOU? Do you always do your best? Or are you always trying to WIN, no matter what? Leave a comment if you feel so inclined — 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 posted elsewhere!)

Created at 2026.03.16 00:25 PST
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