Always do your best.

"Always do your best" is something I heard a lot as a kid.  From teachers and from my mother.

I always felt so guilty when I turned something in and a teacher would say, "is this your best work?" And I'd lie and say, "yes".

Always do your best?  No thanks.  That's crazy.

Always? If I always did my best on every task or assignment I'd never sleep.

I did my best work about 15% of the time... On stuff I was really passionate about. But do my best work on something that would end up in the garbage within a year?  Do my best work and deprive myself the chance to read an extra chapter in my book while everyone else finished?

Maybe the message was misunderstood... If they meant " put in a good amount of effort" or "take your time and check your work", well fine.  That's reasonable.

But "always do your best work" always seemed unreasonable to me.  To me, it translated as "always do perfect work".

For some, maybe that works.  But I don't operate well that way.  I'd rather complete most tasks "pretty good" and save my best work for the things I'm fueled and excited to do.

By no means am I a lazy person. I just think we put too much emphasis on perfection and work and not enough on simply being open to life and absorbing the world.

Too much time honing our smartness and not enough honing our wisdom.