You’re reading The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

I’ve always looked up to my dad. He’s a passionate entrepreneur, a great dad and one of those people, who, more often than not, knows the right thing to say.  Over the years he has ‘gifted’ me with words of wisdom on everything from business to relationships, parenting to decision-making.  There’s one piece of advice, however, that I probably rely on the most.

Do your best every day.  

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called my father worried about something that happened, concerned about an outcome or second-guessing myself.  And my dad predictably responds with a question. “Did you do your best?”  Yes.  “That’s all you can do”, he says “You can’t control what happens from here”.

That’s it? Simple, right?  But if you really stop to think about it, this supposedly simple piece of advice has the power to help you be happier, more fulfilled and yes, even more successful.  How?

1. When you do your best every day, you feel better about yourself.

You can rest at ease knowing you did everything you could.  That you have no regrets and nothing about which to feel bad or guilty.  If you do your best and then someone criticizes you, or doesn’t like what you did, tells you you’re working too slow…or fast, or gives you a hard time, it’s easier to brush off when you know in your heart you did the best you can.  There is a lot of peace to be found in that.

Likewise, if you do the best you can and you’re not happy with the result or it doesn’t work out the way you expected, you can be at peace, knowing you did your best and there’s nothing else you could have done, especially now that it’s over.

I ask my clients (and myself) this question all the time.  Whether they’re ruminating over something they’ve said, thinking about what they could have done better, or just disappointed about an outcome they had hoped to achieve.  Did you do your best?  If the answer is Yes, then it’s time to move forward onto something more productive.

Now, let’s be clear.   This doesn’t mean you don’t try to do better, to learn, strive, improve and change.   These things are still important for our growth and evolution.  But if we can think about those things in the context of next time, you’ll probably see more results than if you ‘beat yourself up’.  If you’ve done your best, there’s nothing more to do.  You can’t change the past, you can only let the past influence your future.  You can let the ‘should haves’, ‘would haves’ and ‘could haves’ fall away and save them for what you can do next time.

2. When you do your best every day, you achieve more. 

This makes sense, right?  Do your best, good stuff happens.  Don’t do your best, less happens.  And others know when you’re doing your best or not.

My dad shares a story of his father, my grandfather.  One summer during the depression, he and three of his college buddies worked for JC Penny.   Towards the end of the summer, the store ran out of job-related work for them.  So, they asked the boys to wash windows.  My grandfather washed the windows, every day, doing the best he could and working hard.  The other three boys complained that wasn’t what they were hired to do, were frustrated by the request and decided they would wash the windows slower, so that the work would last the rest of the summer.  They phoned it in.  But my grandfather just kept on washing, figuring, if he ran out of windows, they would find another job for him, or let him go early.   This wasn’t just about hard work, it was about doing his best work regardless of the circumstances.

The following summer, they all went back to apply for jobs again.   Guess what happened?  Yep, the three guys who slowed down didn’t get rehired.  But my grandfather did.  His work ethic had left a lasting impression on his boss.

Why wouldn’t you do your best?  Doing your best doesn’t cost you anything more.  In fact, it probably requires less time and energy than figuring out a way around or through or over something.  Let’s face it, when you’re not doing your best, it’s draining.  You have to think about it.  It takes more effort.  And, whether or not you realize it, at some level, you feel bad and guilty, because you know it’s not working.  You may think you’re fooling others, but you can never fool yourself!

It doesn’t matter how much someone pays you or how important the job or the person is.  You can do your best everyday regardless of the circumstances.  Now, I’m not advocating doing a job you hate or doing it for less compensation than is appropriate.  In those cases, the best option is usually to look for something else.  But staying there and not doing your best, shouldn’t be an option.  Because if you’re going to be there, wherever there is, you might as well be there completely.  Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time and energy.   And someone else’s money and resources.

Doing your best every day, regardless of who’s watching, whether it’s your ‘role’ or not or whether you’re head over heels in love with what you’re doing will make you more productive, successful and healthy.

3. When you do your best every day, you see the world differently:

What if when you’re doing your best every day, you start to believe that others are giving their all too? This is a form of cognitive bias, where we see things that confirm our own existing beliefs.

I like to believe we are all doing our best every day.  The best we can with what we have – at that moment, in that situation, with that time frame, our level of skills and knowledge, you name it.

Sometimes we have the skills or emotional intelligence or strategies to handle something better, sometimes we don’t.  But everyday, we are ALL doing the best we can with what we have.    Now, our best might be better tomorrow.  And some days, our best isn’t as good as it was the day before.  That’s ok.  It’s important to remind yourself, you are doing the best you can with what you have, right now.  Let’s be honest, none of us wake up wanting to mess it up, screw it up or make a fool out of ourselves!

When you look at the world through this lens, you realize, that in most cases, everyone else IS also probably doing the best they can with what they have.  So, when that colleague doesn’t email you back, instead of assuming he’s an incompetent jerk, you might think twice that he’s busy or he’s gathering more information, so he can respond to you.  Or when a friend is a bit curt when you run into her at a coffee shop, you might think she’s having a rough day, not that she’s making a personal attack on you.  When your spouse forgets something…again…you can ask yourself, “Are they doing the best they can, today, with what they have?” If they are, then maybe you can respond with a bit more kindness and a little more compassion.

So, how do you know you’ve done your best?

It’s important how you judge your best.  Sometimes it’s keeping score.  I ran 10 minutes today, I can run 12 tomorrow.  Sometimes it’s a ‘gut check’.  Did I do the best I knew how to do? Really?

Now, you may be wondering, will accepting I’ve done my best make me lazy, less ambitious, less driven?    Actually, I feel it’s just the opposite.  Acknowledging when you’ve done your best (and when you haven’t) gives you the freedom to focus on what to improve or change for  next time, and stops you from wasting precious time, energy and resources ruminating on something that is already in the past and you can’t control or change.

We’re all learning, growing and evolving.  Every day.  That’s life.  And, my experience with clients and friends is that we are also pretty hard on ourselves.  So, whether you find yourself ruminating about a mistake, beating yourself up for something you said, wishing you could change something that’s already happened or worrying about what might.

Ask yourself this question.  Did I do the best that I could? If the answer is a resounding “Yes”.  Give yourself permission to let go, move on and use your time, energy and emotion to move forward towards your next, knowing you did the best that you could.   After all, as my Dad says, “That’s all you can do, you can’t control what happens from here”.

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As a results-driven, certified coach and consultant, Tracy partners with individuals to help them achieve greater levels of happiness, fulfillment and success – personally and professionally.   http://ift.tt/2BT3rRS

You’ve read The Best Advice My Dad Ever Gave Me, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading How to be Motivated (almost) all the time using 1 Simple Habit, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

You’ve probably experienced this before:

You wake up in the morning and you’re just not feeling it.

It’s not that you are particularly tired, or had a drink too many last night.

The day ahead just doesn’t seem very exciting.

Lying in bed you start reflecting:

You do everything you should be doing. Your job is interesting, your relationships are intact and fulfilling, you are in great health.

Logically you should wake up ready to move mountains.

Yet here you are, lying in bed dreading to get up and brush your teeth.

It’s a bit depressing isn’t it?

By now you might be thinking, “No one is motivated all the time. Sometimes you just need to be disciplined.”

Sure I agree with you. You can’t be motivated every second of your life.

But you definitely can experience motivation more consistently than the average person by using a better than average approach.

And I will show you in this article how to do just that using 1 simple habit.

If you do apply it motivation stops being such a hassle and becomes a reliable asset that is there for you when you need it.

How you are unconsciously killing your motivation

If you are rarely motivated its because you are great at consistently killing your motivation.

I don’t mean to blame you. And I know “killing” might be a bit of a strong word.

But most likely you are practicing a habit everyday for years that prevents you from being motivated.

It’s the habit of thinking in terms of HOW

Let me explain.

It starts in school. We’re assigned homework and the first thing we ask ourselves is “How am I going to complete the homework?”

Then at University, exams are approaching and we immediately think: “How am I going to revise for the exams?”

Later we get a job, get a project assigned and again the HOW of getting it done is our main focus.

What is the task and how am I going to get it done – that’s our mode of operating in everyday life. Its what I call the habit of thinking in terms of HOW.

The result of this “How am I going to get this done” approach to life is that we become very efficient task completers. Great students. Fast workers. You name it.

Yet we become so occupied with the HOW, that we never take a step back and ask WHY we are doing something. As a result our motivation suffers.

How to be motivated consistently using 1 habit

We have to know WHY we are doing something to be motivated. Why do the homework, why study for the exam, why go to work?

Why?

Because a strong why clarifies in your mind why a task is important within the big picture of your life.

To become motivated consistently then, you have to consistently reconnect to why you are doing something.

Instead of approaching your everyday tasks with HOW you are going to get it done, implement the following habit:

Think WHY first, HOW second.

If you wake up feeling unmotivated, don’t look at your schedule and start thinking “How am I going to get it done?” That’s step number 2.

Step number 1 is to think “Why am I going to do it?” and come up with a list of reasons in your head.

The key here is to really hone in as to why this item is important to YOU. Not in general and not to someone else, but to YOU.

I don’t have to tell you that your time on earth is very limited. And the task is there on your schedule because YOU made the decision conscious or unconscious to put it there.

So why is each item on your daily schedule, why does it deserve to suck up some of your precious lifetime?

The habit of think WHY first, HOW second will force you to confront those questions regularly.

And by doing so you’ll get back in touch with what motivates you.

Results you can expect form this 1 habit

If you practice thinking WHY first and HOW second, you can expect two great outcomes:

• Outcome #1: You will become fast at reconnecting to why you are doing something, and as a result, your motivation will skyrocket on a consistent basis.
• Outcome #2: You will become acutely aware of what activities don’t serve a purpose in your life, and filter them out regularly.

Both outcomes are worth the tiny amount of time it takes to execute the habit.

Of course it takes a bit of effort to think of reasons to do something when you don’t feel like doing it.

But after some practice it will become a part of your life and in a few months you’ll look back and be surprised by how much more motivated you are on a day-to-day basis.

And when the occasional laziness sneaks up on you (we’re human after all) you won’t feel helpless anymore.

Instead you’ll feel confident in your ability to reconnect to what motivates you.

Felix helps his readers to learn and progress faster by making self-development simple and applicable. Visit his blog www.felixdigests.com for practical self-development advice.

You’ve read How to be Motivated (almost) all the time using 1 Simple Habit, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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