Stop accepting “good enough.” You can be great.
You’re working hard. And that’s not easy during these tough times.

You don’t have to compare yourself to anyone else. You’re unique. You’re not Ryan Holiday or Tim Ferriss. You’re not Jack Reacher, Marcus Aurelius, Brencé Brown, Thich Nhat Hanh, or Elon Musk.

OK, I hear you saying “No shit, Sherlock.”

“I don’t need to be those people. I am who I am. I’m doing my best.”

Would you like to be doing great?
I bet most of you, like me, have read or at least know about each of the people listed above. That’s a start. There’s a reason that each of them is so successful. And if we want to be our best we can emulate their practices.

We All Have Our Obstacles

I know – you have good reasons for not doing everything you should. You’re stuck in lockdown. Your lives have been turned upside down. You question your purpose and meaning now that life has changed so radically.
You have the reasons. Damn it! Youhave obstacles.

I get that. I have a shit-ton of them. That’s caused me to go on a mission to do more.
I know I won’t make huge, life-transforming changes. But there are a few things I can start.

To begin, we need to ask ourselves some tough questions.
When you wake up do you start with prayer, exercise, and meditation?

Are You Doing These Things?

Do you go over the task list you made the night before? Do you have reminders on your phone? On your wall? Or mirrors? According to experts, that’s how we should start our day.

I’m not so good at it. I am pretty good at reminding myself of what I should be doing— Paying bills, making phone calls, and the copywriting jobs I was hired to do. Thinking about them and doing them are miles apart.

What about you? Do you always have what you think of as a successful day? Do you always feel like you did your best? Do some tasks get dropped? Are you exercising? Eating right? Meditating? Growing your faith?

I don’t. Instead, I often find myself waiting for night to come so I have the excuse to watch Stargate Atlantis. That can change.

If you’re like me, you found things that distract you from doing your best. You had to groom the dog. You had to mow the lawn. You had to check your stats on Medium. Necessary things to do. But they weren’t planned for that day. They weren’t intentionally designed to be part of your day.

So what do we do about it? How do we get on track to do our best?

What Can We Do?

Read, re-read, or listen to the leaders. And be purposeful. Take notes. Post reminders. Assign yourself a way to implement at least one thing from each. Use the SMART method.

Here’s an example of quickly implementing a SMART (specific-measurable-attainable-realistic-time bound) way to help you move towards doing your best. Over the next two days, create a visual, using Canva or Pinterest, that has from 3–10 quips or quotes written on it. Post it where you will see it in your first ten minutes of the day. Read it. Every day. Schedules time to evaluate your progress and recreate it every 90 days.

A few reminders that help me through the day. Made in 15 minutes on Canva
I’ve listed a few resources to get you started. I’m purposely leaving out my opinion and explanations because you need to decide what works for you. Schedule time in your day/week to check them out. One at a time.

* Ryan Holiday (The Obstacle Is the Way)
* Brené Brown (Rising Strong + others)
* The New Testament — Bible
* Don Miguel Ruiz (The 4 Agreements)
* Darrin Donnelly (Think Like A Warrior)
* The Philosophy of Stoicism
* James Allen (As A Man Thinketh)

We’re going to fail some days. Not because we didn’t accomplish great amounts of amazing things. We don’t have to.

We need to complete what we set out to do in the way we defined it.
It could include an afternoon of watching all of Season one of Picard or The Amazing Mrs. Maisel. If you planned for it.

Now is the time to move to the next step. No excuses. Let your obstacles become the way and Always Do Your Best.