Do Your Best

"Go on, lean in. Listen. You hear it? Carpe--hear it? Carpe...carpe diem. Seize the day boys. Make your lives extraordinary."
--John Keating (Dead Poets Society)

The first agreement was be impeccable with your word. The second agreement was don't take anything personally. The third agreement was don't make assumptions.

The fourth and final agreement is always do your best. Doing your best means living effectively and staying engaged in those activities that you deem most important.

Only you can gauge what you best is. No one else can do it for you.

There is a zen riddle: If you seek it, you cannot find it. Doing your best means staying focused on actions rather than outcomes. Revel in the process. Keep working to get better. The results will naturally follow.

Mastery comes from practice.

Doing your best also means letting go of the baggage of the past. The past is useful as a learning tool or for the occasional fond memory. But it should not be a source of regret or an anchor that ties one to times gone by.

Uncertainty about the future can also impair best behavior. Some attention to tomorrow is necessary for planning purposes. But it should not be a source of worry or anxiety that grates on present action.

Doing your best means acting effectively, drawing when necessary from past and future, in order to live fully in the here and now.