When people say they did their best, they reveal something about themselves.
What does it mean to do your best?
Doing your best is about the standards you set for yourself. When expectations are high and standards are low, “doing your best” becomes an easy excuse to avoid accountability.
Consider my youngest son. At the start of grade seven, he came home and handed me a test with one of the lowest grades he’s ever received. I looked at him as he said, “I did my best,” shrugged his shoulders, and walked away.
He was lying to himself.
When I sat down with him later that night, we discussed what it means to do our best.
Putting Yourself in a Good Position
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Doing your best is about the position you put yourself in rather than the result you get. I asked him what it meant to put himself in a good position for success on a test. He listed factors like sleeping well, eating a healthy breakfast, avoiding arguments with his brother, and studying effectively. In that moment, he came to the realization he hadn’t done his best.
Too often, when people say they did their best, they mean they did their best in the moment with little regard for what came before it. In my son’s case, I have no doubt he gave his best in the hour he wrote the test. But doing your best is mostly about things before the moment.
If you don’t prepare for a meeting and someone asks you a question that you should know the answer to but don’t, you put yourself in a poor position for success. Sure, you might luck out, but you didn’t do your best. If things don’t work out, it’s easy to walk away and tell yourself (and others) you did your best given the position you were in. Had you really done your best, you never would have found yourself in such a poor position.
Doing your best isn’t about the result.
You know you did your best before you know the result. Doing your best is about the position you find yourself in when you show up.
Over the long term, the average person who constantly puts themselves in a good position beats the genius who finds themselves in a poor position.
What looks like talent is often good positioning. And the best way to put yourself in a good position is with good preparation.