Effort

August has been a wacky month. Aside from what I've mentioned in previous blogs, my partner caught a cold earlier this week, and a couple nights ago I was bitten while brushing Salad, which I, admittedly, deserved.

All throughout the week, I kept thinking about the "Winning Wednesday," e-mail I'd received from BestSelf Co. last Wednesday. I don't remember ever signing up for the newsletter, and for the most part I ignore it, but the opening line, "why 30% is actually 100%," piqued my curiosity enough for me to read through the entire e-mail. Cathryn, the founder and CEO of BestSelf Co., mentioned halfway through the newsletter that if you're performing at 30% capacity and that's all you're able to give at the present moment, then that's your 100%.

The first time I read it, I nodded in agreement. This wasn't the first time I'd heard the tidbit of wisdom, and it makes sense. If you're giving a day your all despite the surprises and disasters and distractions the cosmos sends your way, then yeah, that 30% is your 100% for the day, right? You put forth your max effort even when the universe was against you, and that has to account for something, so you might as well help yourself feel better by saying, "Today was my 100% even though I was only able to give 30%." I've certainly done so, and it's not a bad perspective to adopt.

Then, I got to really thinking about the statement and started asking myself, "What is 100%? What does that really mean? My 100% isn't the same as your 100%. It's a personal range that isn't truly quantifiable, because even when we feel like we're on top of the world, could we not have pushed just a little bit harder, and when we feel like we've given it our all, couldn't we have taken just one more step?"

I'd like to present an alternative idea. Your 30% is still your 30%, and 100% is never truly achievable, because there's always something you could have done better or differently for the day, something that deserved more attention that didn't receive it, something that consumed too much of your time that really didn't need it.

And that's okay.

I'm betting any perfectionists or overachievers out there reading this will be frothing at the mouth by the time they reach this sentence, but let's dissect the idea some before jumping to any conclusions by starting with a scene from the football movie, "Facing the Giants." I don't watch sports movies often; I'm pretty sure this was required for school way back in the day, but this scene has always stuck with me even a decade and a half later.

Brock believed his 100% was the 50 yard mark, but with Coach Taylor's bootcamp encouragement, Brock made it to the end zone with a 160 lb (~72.6 kg) kid on his back. The other players start off with mock encouragement, laughing and chatting amongst themselves, yelling, "Come on, Brock!" but by the end, they're all dumbstruck by the true lengths Brock was able to go when "giving his best." This scene, I believe, encapsulates what it means to really strive for 100%. Indeed, Brock reached as close as one could get to 100% when you take all factors of age, wellness, personal challenge, and more into account.

Now, imagine if he made crossing that distance a habit. Perhaps less inspiring, but the goal post of 100% changes once he's able to consistently make that trek. To get as close to 100% as he can again, he would need to further increase the distance, but we're not here to talk about goal changes; we're here to talk about the amount of effort someone can put forth in a given day.

"Give your best" is not the same as "give it 100%," but neither should not be taken lightly. Giving 100% is not something to strive for each and every day. Well-intentioned motivators will point to similar anecdotes of why you should give each and every day your all, but if we put forth that much effort and put our minds or bodies through that much stress each and every day, why, we'd all keel over from congestive heart failure.

Put another way, in my Built With Science program, Jeremy often touts that for each of the workouts, you want to push yourself as close to failure as possible, within 1-3 reps. For the truly ambitious, choosing one or two exercises to push until failure is mentioned, but it's not recommended for all exercises because of how fatigued your muscles can become. Even to reach within 1-3 reps of failure means pushing hard for each set of exercises. To reach within 1-3 reps of failure would be similar to dedicating 80% of myself to each and every exercise. I'm still grunting and sweating and occasionally gritting out numbers as my muscles spasm from exertion, but I also know that I could push harder, especially if I had a personal trainer encouraging me.

Viewing a true 100% as unachievable, just as true perfection also does not exist, should be freeing. Give yourself permission to operate at a daily average of 60, 70, or 80 percent, and save those truly remarkable moments for when it matters, because hitting that 99.99% is meant to be one of the most difficult challenges you've faced. It's meant to be exhausting and taxing.

30% is 30%. It's neither good nor bad; it's just a number, another point of data in the chart. We're the ones who interpret it as one or the other. I tell myself this just as much as I tell it to you, dear reader, because I'm a perfectionist. I'm an overachiever. If I can only give 30% in a given day no matter how hard I try, it eats at me, and August has been an entire month of 30%-50% overall output.

Yet I feel it is a fallacy to label something what it is not, even if the intention behind the relabeling is well-meaning. 30% is an uncomfortable number for many, because there's the sense of, "You can do better," behind it.

Make each day passable. Strive for that 100% on days where it really matters to you. Let the 30% be 30% and view it without judgment of what you could give or your value as a person.

And I'll do my best to do the same.

Other Notable Accomplishments:

• Filled in some of the music gaps for Teyr'loch Delter Pach where I hadn't yet decided on what pieces I wanted. Composing has been slow, but I have been making progress here and there.

• C25K Week 5 Day 3, Week 6 Day 1, Week 6 Day 2.

• BWS workouts

  • Might not get to them this next week unfortunately because the cat bite was on my hand, and it's difficult to grip anything without it hurting

Questions for Contemplation & Discussion:

• If you can, tell me about a time where you truly pushed for 100%, giving the best of your best. How did the effort pay off? Did the universe align for you, or did it fight you every step of the way? How did you view yourself afterward?

• On the flip side, tell me about a time where you were barely able to give even 30% of yourself because that's all you had in your tank. How did you view yourself then? If it was harsher than the aforementioned best, did it really help you feel better or did it just make you feel worse?

  • Challenge: Next time you have a 30% day and start berating yourself, take a moment to reflect on how much importance you're placing on that percentage versus how much it actually matters in the grand scope of your life. Let the 30% be 30%.

This Week's Obligatory Cat Pic: Mura

*Sneer*