You’re doing your best with what you’ve got, starting where you are.
Not some idealized version of your best. Not the best you’d have if you had more money, more time, a different upbringing, a different brain, different parents, different country of residence.
This. Right now. From here.
I used to get frustrated with that.
The PhDs I don’t have still.
The entrepreneur I haven’t become yet — despite the books, the work, the years.
The followers I don’t have.
The languages I don’t speak.
The places I haven’t been to.
The financial security I haven’t yet given my parents.
It felt like my life was just a long list of not-quite.
Yesterday, in our Self-Actualization coaching certification class, we talked about our B Self.
A coach shared that she felt far from her best self — that her life would need to change a lot before that version of her could show up. And then, one by one, the rest of us nodded.
We all felt that way.
Like we’re perpetually waiting for the conditions to be right before we’re allowed to show up fully, before our best self can fully shine.
Then we all reflected.
Maybe, just maybe, living as your best self isn’t about having it all. Maybe it’s about making the most of what you’ve got, starting from exactly where you are, as you are?.
If you’ve been out of shape for ten years, your best isn’t a six-pack and a marathon finish line. It’s a daily walk and one more vegetable on your plate.
If you didn’t grow up in a startup ecosystem with capital and connections, your best isn’t a unicorn valuation. It’s a business that serves the people you can actually reach and creates a comfortable life for the people you love.
If you just got injured — physically, professionally, emotionally — your best isn’t peak performance. It’s getting back on your feet.
I interviewed Rich Diviney, a former Navy SEALs commander for my Change Wired podcast, and he said something that’s stayed with me: in SEAL culture, they don’t aim for absolute best. They aim to perform as well as they can given the circumstances and how they feel on that specific day.
That reframe is a memo most of us never got.
Your best isn’t a fixed standard to maintain at all times in all conditions.
It’s a growth journey of looking at where you are, as you are, and asking,
“Is it the best that can be now?”
What would it look like to stop measuring yourself against the life you don’t have — and start asking what’s the best move available in the life you’ve got?