There is growth in giving less than your best

You don’t have to give your best all the time. Your best might actually be actively resisting the desire for perfection. Your best might be slowing down. Your best might be leaning into rest. Your best might be doing uncomfortable thing — doing less.

I haven’t given what I would have once defined as “my best” to running in about 5 years.

But in doing that, I did the hard thing. I did the scary thing. I stopped pushing for more, for better, for PRs, for that line that goes *up and to the right*. 

Clients tell me that resting more or eating more or simply not striving for their idea of body perfection makes them feel “lazy”, “unproductive”, or like they’re “letting themselves go”. 

I’d argue you’re “letting yourself live”. You’re bravely opening yourself up to learning exactly who you are without all the bullshit and the noise. And you’re practicing the art of acceptance, patience, and contentment.

I am living far better than I ever was. And now, when/if I want it, I might have a shot at pushing myself again. I might deliberately seek out improvement. But that’s only because I let go of it; I gave my body time to heal, time to be, time to find out where it feels happiest and healthiest.
By letting go of running, I created space for change. And as I came back to it, I found new ways to measure improvement. Running without a goal, running only for joy, running only when I wanted, running slower than ever before, running without time or pace on my mind, running less than resting, running to find out why I even run.

5 years ago, I would have told you that in doing so I wasn’t giving it “my all”. But quite the contrary: I gave it EVERYTHING. Because for me to accept that growth and improvement didn’t have any particular look or any well-trodden path, that was my absolute best.

What would it look like for you to not give your best all the time? What space might you create for real, lasting change?