Do the Best You Can…

It is an unhappy day in the life of anyone when he fails to find sincere satisfaction in doing useful things for the joy of doing them and in doing them to the best of his ability. We all have ambitions; most of us want money; we may want prestige and position all of which, as Ruskin observed, are acceptable as secondary objectives, but all of which are subordinate in giving satisfaction and in producing essential qualities of character. Superseding them all is the sincere satisfaction of work well done.

Most of us are obliged to work whether we want to or not. But there is an extra premium for taking pride in work the pride of doing more than simply getting by, the pride of equaling or improving our past performance.

It was the Savior who said, “Be yet therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” It may not appear that this kind of perfection is within the reach of mortal men. But the reaching for it is within reach. And we should not be satisfied with substandard performance. We should not be satisfied with “seconds,” but only with a product on which we could be proud to place our label.

The makers and manufacturers of many things sell “seconds” and substandard products under other names. But a man in his own life cannot hide behind another name. His label is indelibly on everything he does. Even if it isn’t actually imprinted on his product, it is imprinted on his own soul, on his personality, on his inner appraisal of his own performance. As one man bluntly fashioned a phrase, negative perhaps but meaningful: “Do the best you can that’s bad enough.” We all fall so far short of perfection that less than our best is less than acceptable.

In doing our best, in being at our best, we become better. In doing less than our best, we move backward. And any time we attempt to get by with as little effort as we can, we somehow slip back.

Since we should and must work (and since life moves with such swiftness) it is important that we ask ourselves always whether we are putting out our top product, our top performance. If we can answer affirmatively, we shall have the happiness and surpassing satisfaction that come only with useful work well and willingly done.