The Best You Can Do

Hi, and welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session we're going to talk about the importance of doing the best we can. Wangari Matthai said, "No matter who or where we are or what our capabilities, we are called to do the best we can." No matter who or where we are or what our capabilities, we are called to do the best we can. So there's something about the simplicity of this that feels poignant to me. I think when it comes to figuring out what to do in the world or how to do it, we can easily complicate the process, especially when it comes to comparing ourselves to other people - other resources people have, other capacities, talents, skills, innate or develope.

And then we compare all of that to ourselves and it can be easy to get caught up in this judgemental spiral. I don't know if you've experienced that, but I know I certainly have. What's the point of doing this or that person can do it so much better than me, or why put effort toward this thing when I'm so far behind or have so fewer resources than someone else. And so what I love about this quote is that it's a call to do the best we can given wherever we are and our current capabilities. That becomes our baseline.

And can we let that be the platform we stand on rooting as into our current truth and let our best be guided by the compass that we live by, this compass of what is the best for me right now, what is the best I can do. Let that both be the means and the end and the thing we evaluate our actions through. So a simple question you can ask yourself throughout the day is, what is the best I can do right now? At the end of the day and doing our best is quite literally the best we can ask of ourselves. So thanks for your practice. Thanks for doing your best.

And let's settle in for today's meditation.