Your Best Isn't Perfect

I think we all agree that the core objective of self-improvement is to become the best version of ourselves we can be - The healthiest, most intentional, most contributing person that we’re capable of becoming (so that fundamentally we are as happy and fulfilled as possible). 

Abraham Maslow calls it “to be all that we can be”. But as is the process of self-actualization, ‘your best’ is a moving target. It’s constantly evolving, updating, and changing.

This leads to a common misconception about being our best - We typically envision it as a well-defined endpoint or a level to reach, that it’s something to attain and then maintain...

But if such a point existed we’d call it perfection.

We know that we’re incapable of true perfection. Be we are capable of doing our best. That's why - Your best isn’t perfect.

So what is our best then?

It’s the current, most optimized point within the current dynamics. If a teammate is sick we do our best to get the project done on time even though it’s understaffed. When we receive bad news we do our best to have a good attitude about it and emotionally process in the way that is healthiest for us. 

If our best was perfect then we’d always be pursuing the same ideal - the ultimate, unobstructed, unrestricted version of exactly what we want. It certainly serves us to have as much clarity on what that is (and what it isn’t)! But in reality our best is more practical than that.

When you rub your ideal life against reality, you start to see the failure points and incompatibilities. On one hand you can completely uproot your life to create more compatibility, which is a more radical approach… Or you can make subtle shifts that help you get more of what you want within the current macro context.

This is the concept behind redesigning your life.

The different aspects of your life are like building blocks, not puzzle pieces. They fit together in more than just one way. You can either completely knock down the structure of your life and start over, or you can make fine adjustments to some of the blocks and see if it makes your structure stronger.

The more practical approach to becoming 'your best' is to optimize one block at a time. Get a coach for this here, enforce better boundaries there, set up a new system to do this thing differently. One small adjustment at a time you get feedback on how your life is set up and how close you’re getting to your ideal.

The craziest part is, most people don’t realize that they can control aspects of their life design. They don't think to challenge the way they do things to see how it goes. Worst case scenario, you get it wrong and you set it back up just how it used to be.

To better understand how to create a strong foundation that you can build your best-life on top of, you’ll want to know the 7 Fundamentals To Self Improvement.

They are the building blocks to your best-life.