I ran into this blog post today:
http://socialtriggers.com/never-say-this-again
Which is discussing the implications of saying “I’m doing the best I can”.
And, suddenly, I don’t agree with the seemingly obvious. Why? Well, apparently one can use that kind of language to justify their lack of actions. On the other hand, we have natural limits, yet those limits are different.. It can actually be true that somebody is doing all they can.
The only thing we need to add to that phrase is “under the circumstances”, although, I think it is always implied anyways. You can scrutinize yourself all you want for not doing more and using this kind of possibly negative language. However, if you do want to do more, you actually have to sacrifice something, even if it’s as simple as another hour of sleep at night.
So why do people get so excited about the idea (check that blog post, you’ll see what I mean)? Well.. can it be because it’s simply implying that there is an easy solution to the standard problem we all have? We don’t always realize that there are limits to what we can do and that we need to commit more of our resources to the goal.. so we try to do more than we can under the circumstances, and, then, we just fail to do it. And, then, this magical formula shows up which just tells us be positive and you’ll get it done. But it does not work like that.. You’ll have to find those additional resources, you may have to sacrifice something else, and, then, you may have to say, again, that “you are doing best you can under the circumstances”, and there might be nothing negative about it – it might be just as simple a fact as when you say that two by two is four.