How To Do Your Best

Your Best is No One Else’s Best
I was at a Yoga class the other day when the teacher made this off-hand comment:

“Don’t worry about what other people in the class is doing, everyone is doing their best, just like you…”

I thought it was a brilliant comment.

I often see people afraid to start something because they base their goals on what other people are doing. For instance, “I can’t go to that yoga class because I won’t be as strong or as flexible or as fit or as thin as everyone else,” and then you sabotage yourself. You don’t do the thing you want to do (learn to play guitar, start writing a novel, launch your own business, etc. etc.) because you base your personal success on what others have done. And then you are stuck. You confuse your best with other people’s best.

But then you don’t get to live YOUR life. And what if you could live your life just for you? What if you didn’t worry about what other people’s achievements were and just focused on your own?

What if your best today is just standing up and stretching? And so you do it. And then you do it again tomorrow. and then the next day. And each day, you do your best. And then your best grows?

And what if your best today is not actually doing anything but just being kind to yourself? Buying yourself a bouquet of flowers? Taking time to wash your hair? And what if you did that again tomorrow and the next day? And then you find yourself being kind to yourself and others effortlessly…

And what if your best today is baking a batch of cookies for your children and trying to eat one or two or three without fear, without shame, without bingeing, without purging, without telling yourself that eating a cookie is a moral failure? And then you did it again tomorrow.

And what if your best today is just showing up. Going to that yoga class and barely participating, but just showing up and maybe doing a few asanas just to get used to the class and check it out. No one will judge you, they’ll just be happy to be there with you.

These are just examples, but what if you could look at yourself and say, “what do I want to do or be today that has nothing to do what anyone else is doing today?” What would that look like for you?

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