The post on Looking back, and then Looking Forward had an interesting discussion point.
Mark had a view on my commitment to ‘be the best I can be’.
“being the best I can be” -> This is a loaded commitment. Can you be anything else except who you genuinely are? You can dress in a nice suit, you can make good and bad decisions, you can work and/or play hard. But you will always be Rohan. What does a “best” Rohan look and feel like to you? Understanding that feeling may help.
To which, I’d replied
‘Being the best I can be’ is something I re-commit to every day.
Here’s why. There are days when I’m tempted to drag my feet into word, just show up and not do as much as I’d normally do. You know.. days when things are not going so well. This commitment helps me a great deal on those days because I ask myself the – ‘Am I the most positive and energetic person I can be today?’ question. And often, that’s the cue for me to smile and get on with it! :)
Of course, it doesn’t mean I succeed to do so every day.. but I’m working on it! :)
I thought I’d take that discussion a bit further.
The principle behind ‘Being the best I can be’ is that most things in our life are pre-determined within a range. What this means is we have all come to this world with pre-ordained ranges – for our intelligence in specific fields, for our raw mental horsepower/IQ, for our happiness etc.
There’s a lot of great research around this. ‘The Happiness Hypothesis’ by Jonathan Haidt is a book I’d recommend if you’re keen to understand the natural range principle in terms of happiness. (Note: I’m still reading this book. So, it’s not ‘highly’ recommend yet..)
Taking happiness as an example, this essentially means that we spend every day of our life shuttling between the various points in our happiness range. Some days are at the higher end, and yet some days are at our lower end. The interesting thing here is that we have a huge amount of control in determining our position in the range that we rarely exercise. That’s probably why we term this process as a ‘pursuit’ because that’s what it really is. (I have an absurdly long post on my journey in the past year if you have an interest in digging deeper.)
Essentially, ‘being the best I can be’ is an idea that never fails to challenge me every single day. It asks me the important question – ‘Are you doing enough to be on top of your range in everything you do today?’
If you are a professional soccer player, you can only get as good as the top of your pre-determined range. Not everybody is born a Zidane or an Einstein (if you are a scientist).. but that said, if you have chosen soccer to be your profession, are you at least doing enough to maximize your potential?
And since you are living life (whether chosen, or not..), are you doing enough to maximize your happiness and impact on this world?
That’s the thinking behind this adage. And this is the inspiration.
Have a great day!
A Learning a Day 