Do Better than Your Best

[still kicking]

One thing my sensei said after our testing/evaluations last week has really stuck with me. Promotions had just been announced, and we were getting the usual tongue lashing and pep talk combined, and she said something to the effect of, don't just do your best, do better than your best. She explained that in the future we will be much better than we are now, but if we only aim to be as good as we can be now, we are limiting ourselves, and that we should go beyond that. I think it goes along with the idea of go until you can't go any farther, then push yourself beyond that. Well, I think it was meant mostly for those in the group who were a little slow and lackadaisical, but I find it difficult to balance this idea of going all out with the goal of trying to not hurt or injure myself, which I do if I push too hard. Balance is the key, I guess. In any case, it gave me a lot to think about.

[Dobbersky]

This is the Core meaning of "OSU" for Knock-down Karateka (Kyokushin, Ashihara & Enshin)

you should alawys strive to do your best and more as you will always improve yourself and your skills

OSU

[sensei8]

To not do your best in everything is to disrespect yourself, and when you disrespect yourself, then you deny yourself every opportunity along your MA journey.

Either you will always strive to do your best in everything, and if not, then just get off my floor!!

[JusticeZero]

Always do your best. Your best is not your hardest, it is your most accurate and clean. Your best tomorrow should be better than your best today.

[still kicking]

JusticeZero wrote:

Your best is not your hardest, it is your most accurate and clean.

Good point! I might also add, focused and concentrated. If you think about it, though, she said don't just do your best but better than your best, which to me seems paradoxical. I mean I am who I am today, and even if my put my best into it in every way, I will only be the best I can be today. I think what she meant was more to have higher expectations of yourself, or something... Clearly she meant try hard, in terms of effort and concentrating on form, precision, speed, power, focus, etc. I can think of one person in our class who has all that, with a lot of natural ability, but to me, something seems to be missing in terms of spirit. Come to think of it, a bit might be missing in the effort department as well. Maybe it's not good if it comes too easy. Anyway... I shall continue to strive to be "better than my best", and see what happens!

[UselessDave]

Balance is the enemy of success. Really, if you are doing "the best you can" you're just doing what you already can do. Everybody knows you can't get better on anything if you only do what you know you can do. When doing better than your best you're going over that and trying to do everything better than you've ever done before. And I tell you it shows through all your training, and success will follow.

[JohnASE]

If you think about it, though, she said don't just do your best but better than your best, which to me seems paradoxical.

That's what I thought when I first read what she said. You can't do better than your best. When you went on, I realized she was talking about goals. Your goal should be to do better than today's best! I get that.

In college, I took part in a psych experiment about the effect of goals on performance. They had us do a repetitive task and counted the number of times we could do it in a given amount of time. Before beginning, they told us how many times an average person should be able to do it. I assume they told different groups different numbers to compare the results. I was pretty fast. So fast, that I hit their number with LOTS of time left. When I was way over their number, I felt myself relax and slow down! I did way better than the number they gave us, but nowhere near my best. If they had given me a higher number, I'm sure I would've done better.

[bushido_man96]

Always do your best. Your best is not your hardest, it is your most accurate and clean. Your best tomorrow should be better than your best today.

Agreed. Don't want to confuse the two.

As for doing "better than your best..." Tough one here, pretty much semantics, for me. Your best is what you are a that moment in time; training is what gets you there and over. So, do your best, train harder, and your "best" tomorrow or next year should be better than it was.

[Lee M]

Yes if you train with focus and intensity each time your always going to improve "kaizen".

Maintaining control and leaving something in the tank is good - save this for the 12 round.

[ramymensa]

I had my share of wasting time in the dojo and not really feeling like training. So for me the best would be to do my best in that day and try to perform the best I can.