365 Days With Self-Discipline: 365 Life-Altering Thoughts on Self-Control, Mental Resilience, and Success

Day 342: On Doing the Best You Can With What

You Have

Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the

doing, not the getting — in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal

standard — reaching for the highest that is in us — becoming all that we

can  be.  If  we  do  our  best,  we  are  a  success.  Success  is  the  maximum

utilization of the ability that you have.

—Zig Ziglar

One  of  the  best  ways  to  destroy  your  resolve  is  to  associate  success

with results alone. If you fail to generate any results for a long time (as is

often the case when working on difficult, long-term goals), the belief that

you’re only doing well if you’re getting immediate results will discourage

you from continuing.

The proper approach is to espouse the belief that success means doing

the best you can with what you have. Regardless of the outcome, as long as

you’re doing your best, you’re keeping yourself to the highest standard and

that’s what matters the most. The results might come today, tomorrow, six

months from now, or even a decade later.

Obviously,  it’s  not  like  you’re  pursuing  your  goals  for  the  sake  of

pursuing them — you want to get something for your efforts. However, it

will be hard to make your dreams come true if you only obsess about the

end  result  and  forget  to  focus  on  the  current  process.  After  all,  ultimately

it’s the journey itself that will shape you to become the person deserving the

goal you’re after.

A successful businessman isn’t successful because he runs a successful

business.  He’s  successful  because  he  stuck  to  his  business,  despite

difficulties,  failures,  and  the  seemingly  hopeless  situations  in  which  he

found himself. He wouldn’t have built a successful business if he had only

defined  himself  by  the  results  (which  are  rarely  anything  to  brag  about

anyway, at least in the first several years of running a business).

A successful athlete isn’t successful because she has received a medal.

She’s  successful  because  she’s  been  training  harder  than  her  competitors

and  kept  going  despite  pain,  exhaustion,  and  discomfort.  She  would  have

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failed  to  become  a  successful  athlete  if  she  had  obsessed  solely  about  the

prizes, and not on the act of bettering her performance.

Embrace success as holding yourself to a high personal standard and

focus  on  the  process  of  consistently  becoming  better.  As  long  as  you  do

your best with what you have, the results will show up eventually.

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