You give it your best shot. No holding back. No dogging it. And it’s not enough.
What was going to happen if you’d have just stayed out of it does anyway.
It’s human to want to quit trying after you did your best and it made no difference. That’s ‘Success’ talking.
Ignore Success.
Pay no attention to Success. Listen instead to Excellence.
Excellence says, “Hey. Did you do your very best? If you did, you have no reason to hang your head or kick rocks. You gave your best. You loved with all your heart. You gave when you didn’t have it to give. You cared when maybe nobody else took the time. You had the courage to speak up into a situation where everyone else was tippy-toeing around issues that needed attention. You cared! You did your best! Celebrate that!”
The one you did your best for is their own person. They make their own choices. They decide what to do with what you did and gave. They choose what to do with your best, your love and your caring enough to try.
If you let Success talk you out of trying again what about the next person you can help? Encourage? Care about? Take time to listen? Love? What then?
What about him? Her?
There are people designed for you to touch.
There are people only you can touch where they most need it. Where do they go if you refuse to try again?
And what happens to you as your own soul begins to shrivel and dry up? What if you’re the one needing help and your most effective helper listens to Success and says, “I don’t want to try again. That last time hurt too much.”
What then?
Okay. Sometimes your best isn’t good enough. That’s not because you didn’t give it your best. It’s because the one(s) you reached out to chose not to receive it.
Keep on doing your best.
That’s on them, not you. You keep doing your best. Keep encouraging. Caring. Listening. Loving.
Keep it up. Keep ignoring fickle Success, and keep listening to Excellence. You never know whose life you’re touching.
Keep giving your best. Leave the stats in God’s hands. He knows what to do with them.
© D. Dean Boone September 2013