
Today's question: Do you "do the best you can" or "do the best that can be done"?
I pulled this from the book Love & Work by Marcus Buckingham and full disclosure, I was kind of pissed he'd mentioned it. I have always taken pride in putting my best foot forward and doing the best I can. And I can be pretty hard on myself about how good I'm actually doing something (that "always a higher gear" I was basically raised on). So my first reaction was an angry, "why isn't doing the best I can" enough?
After I'd put the book down and moved on to something else, delt with my feelings of being under attack, the disappointment in myself for not seeing this earlier in life...I loved him for raising my bar. How much have I taught myself from scratch? How much have I figured out via books, google, youtube, etc? Am I really doing this the best that can be done? Or, am I giving myself a handicap because it's not my "specialty" or my "primary" job or what I've had years of experience in?
I listened to the book and even though I've bought the physical book to re-read & be able to take notes from, I haven't done that yet. I think though, that he actually also uses the question and your answer, to probe into, if you're not doing it the best that can be done, why aren't you? Sometimes we do things the best that we can do and that is way better than the people around us, but if we think about it, we know we're not doing it the best that it can be done....typically because we don't like[love] it. Then, if you don't love it, is there something that can be done about that? If you have a team, can responsibilities be shifted or swapped or delegated? If you don't have a team, what would it look like to outsource it? Not because you can't do it, but over time, spending time on things you don't love will drain you AND! AND! AND! someone else ACTUALLY loves to do that thing or thinks they love to do it. Why not create space for them to do what they love?
I'd love to hear in the comments or geek out with you via convo about this. Did you have a similar initial reaction to the question as I did? Did you initially say you do the best that can be done, but maybe reevaluate as you read further along about the additional questions?
If you're up for the discussion, or curious about what you may not be seeing, grab time with me here: https://buff.ly/3y9DcEi
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