How Can I Do Better?

"Best is good. Better is best."

- Lisa Grunwald

I love this kind of phrase because it manipulates familiar words and our understanding/thinking about them:

It feels great to be the best at something, doesn't it? Maybe it's a specific sport, musical talent, or knowledge of a specific subject/area of expertise. Isn't it nice to be the "go-to person?" (Think of that Discover commercial with Lou Holtz: "Peggy, you could be my go-to guy...gal.")

So, I'm sure you'll agree with me that there is no denying best is good.

But we can't settle for best. Take a lesson from Jo March: In the musical "Little Women," she sings, "How can I do better than what's already here?" and it takes her the rest of the musical to truly find her voice to make her writing better than before. She didn't give up - she kept trying to be better.

Honestly, when you have finished or are in the process of completing something, are you truly ever done? Isn't there something else - something better - you could do, even though sometimes you don't want to or don't have the energy to do?

If that's true, then when can we say, "enough is enough" or "I've done the best I can?" Well, I don't believe there is a be-all, end-all answer to that question. But if you have worked to become or make things better than they were before, you have already succeeded. By making it (or yourself) better, you have made it (or yourself) best.

After all, we can't always be best, but we sure can always do better. (And, technically speaking, isn't "better" considered "best" in the grand scheme of things?)