Category: mindset

All you can do is all you can do

All you can do is all you can do. There is no more. Sorry, but you can’t give 110%. I know it’s a popular phrase, but it’s not possible. You only have 100% to do it. Maybe eventually you’ll increase your capacity so that what is your full effort today becomes more effortless in the future. But in terms of today, you can only try your best to do what you’re capable of.

You can only control what you can control – your effort and your attitude. Stop worrying about the future. Stop worrying about what other people will think. Stop worrying about the results. If you continue to follow the process, and it’s the right process, the results you desire usually come. It doesn’t always work out (there is no formula for guaranteed success), but if you think in bets and play the odds, you can put yourself in the best position to succeed.

All you can do is all you can do. The key to reducing stress is to let everything else go.

Failure, limitations, and the future

If you can embrace failure, you can accomplish amazing things. If you aren’t afraid to fail, to look stupid, to look weak or lesser in the eyes of others, as long as you can keep getting up and trying again, you will continue to improve and eventually reach heights you never thought possible before.

Failures or setbacks happen. Plan and prepare as much as possible so that winning is the expected outcome, not failure. But if/when you do fail, don’t be too down on yourself. Everyone fails if they’re pushing their current limits…the key is to have a good understanding of what your current limitations are, how much risk you can afford to take so that your failure is not catastrophic, and then to continually push forward. By doing this, eventually your current limitations will be easy for you.

Thoughts on different types of equality

Equality of outcome is not possible, nor should it be desired. We should be striving for equality of opportunity. Everyone should be afforded the same opportunity and then they can choose whether they want to take those opportunities or not. Opportunity will never equal outcome because other factors still play a large part in determining the result. You can affect the result through hardworking, working efficiently, working creatively, working collaboratively, etc. You can get better at networking or delegating. You can get better at doing. And you can always run into good luck or bad luck.

People should be compensated based on their production, results, and merit, but that’s not always going to happen. Because unlike playing sports where you have the same objective and many ways to track results with tangible numbers, we can’t always quantify the value of a team member. And then there is the human, team morale, and leadership aspect to consider too. How can you quantify what that is worth?

We should always strive to be better – for ourselves, our family, friends, co-workers/team, company, city, state, nation, and world. We should strive for a more equal playing field and never stop striving for it. But the best way to start change is to start with yourself. Control what you can control, try to influence what/who you can influence, and realize that nothing is perfect.

The sunk cost theory

Always keep the “sunk cost theory” in mind.

Are you doing something because it actually makes sense – because you want to do it or because it is providing some value to you or serving a purpose? Or are you doing it because you’ve already “invested” so much time, money, or energy doing it and you think about everything that would have been wasted if you quit now?

In reality, you can’t get back the time, money, or energy you’ve already spent. You can’t recoup that. So the question becomes, are you willing to waste more time, money, and energy now just to see the project through? Are you willing to “throw good money after bad?”

Take a step back and ask yourself this question… “If I didn’t have ANYTHING invested in this and I have all of the information that I have today, would I still invest in doing this task?” If the answer is no, then it’s probably best to let it go.

We only have a finite amount of these resources. When we say “yes” to making suboptimal choices, we are inherently saying “no” to making better choices. We can’t be in two places at once. Most people have to make either/or decisions when it comes to buying things because we don’t have unlimited money. And our energy waxes and wanes, but if we keep beating our heads against a wall and doing things that don’t serve us or energize us, we will feel depleted of energy long before we need to. Don’t continue to do something that doesn’t work just because you have a sunken cost – it will only cost you more time, money, and energy in the long run.