Giving Your 100%
I recently finished reading Henry Ford’s autobiography and enjoyed learning more about what he did during his life.
One of the things that stood out to me were his views towards people and interactions with people. He was always very people focused and enabled others to meet expectations at all levels.
Most people don’t tell others to be unethical but, people will follow what their leaders do.
If the leader is unethical or does things that may be morally questionable, that could be shadowed and mirrored by their followers.
Now, I am a HUGE advocate for the law of attraction. But, I use a Biblical reference for it; the parable of the 3 servants (linked here) from Matthew. If God can trust us with little, He can trust us with much. We ATTRACT wealth. We ATTRACT health. We ATTRACT knowledge.
God often will direct us in ways. I believe that 100%. He may close doors or provide opportunities that we never expected to have. But, we might feel like it’s taking too long.
“God’s delays and His ways can be confusing because the process God uses to accomplish His will can go against human logic and common sense.”
— Anne Graham Lotz
I love this quote, especially here, because we do not know everything. We didn’t know that the person we wanted to start a business with was going to steal all the money and leave us $100,000, but God did. We didn’t know that if we wouldn’t have missed our flight, we would have missed out on meeting the person who would offer us our perfect job, but God did. We didn’t know that we would meet our significant other at the grocery store during our quick trip after realizing we forgot eggs, but God did.
But, maybe we could have started a business with someone else and God was reminding us that we were not ready yet to be a good steward.
But, maybe we would not have even needed that flight because we would have been working at our perfect job and God was waiting for us to prepare ourselves.
But, maybe we could have met our significant other sooner in life and God was encouraging us to develop and love ourselves first.
The point is this, sometimes, maybe our best, isn’t the best that God has for us.
We are growing (or at least should be) every single day.
What is your 100%? How can you better your best?
I was talking to my sister recently and we were talking about her high school classes (she’s aspiring to attend med school after she graduates high school in 2020). I asked her if she was doing her best, she said she is. Then, I asked her if there was a way that she could make her best even better.
What is your 100%? What is your best?
Gary Vaynerchuk (someone I love) says that as a business owner, you should never expect your employees to work as hard as you. Why? It’s not their company, it’s yours.
Their 100% might be your 70% and that’s okay, he says.
Maybe I am just the best athlete you’ve ever seen and we want to go for a run. Now, you can’t run, maybe you have asthma and don’t do much cardio. Is my 100% going to have a higher ceiling than you? Most likely yes. But, that’s totally fine.
God calls us all to do different things.
The standards we have for each other do not always represent that. God knows that we are all different people and can all do different things.
I think that athletics are always a very easy comparison.
Serena Williams is very very well known for being an incredible tennis player. Could you imagine her playing in the WNBA? Her 100% there might only be a current professional’s 50%. Her best is on the tennis court, that’s where her 100% is.
Back to the example with Gary Vaynerchuk, he has some amazing film crews. But could you imagine Gary Vaynerchuk filming and NOT speaking? I couldn’t. (Here’s a video he posted on May 17).
“There’s not a single person at VaynerMedia that does the work more than I do.”
— Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary ENCOMPASSES something I am highlighting on Thursday in an upcoming article. He loves others. Gary is driven by love. He LIVES love.
His incredible work drive is beyond so so many others. He is driven by the ability to build. Not everyone is. He builds relationships relentlessly.
His 100% looks incredibly different from so many other people’s 100%. I do not know of many, much less personally know any people who work as he does.
But, he does it. He works in his way. THAT is his 100%.
What’s yours?
People ask me how I write so much (when I was doing 3 articles a week they did).
People ask me how I read so much (118 books last years, but 80 were audiobooks which aren’t quite the same in my eyes, even while it’s still the same content).
People ask me how I eat so much while being so incredibly thin.
People ask me how I remember things that they never thought anyone would.
People ask me how I get things done and executed when there didn’t seem to be a possibility that they could still get done on time.
Maybe that’s part of my 100%.
Maybe that’s me.
But what’s your 100%?
It’s going to look different than mine, I can assure you of that, I am 100% sure of that ;)
But… I know that I could NEVER best your 100%.
My sister is an incredibly driven student. Her passion for science, helping others, and writing is phenomenal, she inspires me… and she’s almost 5 years younger than me.
I could never do what she does. I never did in high school! I didn’t study.
I didn’t study in college either…
But what I did do was work. I worked. I read. I wrote. And… I gave MY 100%.
This was not the article messaging that I was looking to create… but it works.
People expect things out of others. But we are ALL different. We are all completely different people.
We cannot expect people to give OUR 100%. Theirs is different.
But, a French psychologist and pharmacist, Emile Coue showed tremendous power to a phrase he told his patients. He believed that most mental and physical illness was a result of the person’s thinking and by implementing the following phrase into his patients, they experienced some incredible results. He taught his patients to say:
“Every day in every way, I’m getting better and better”
— Emile Coue
In full, everyone’s 100% looks entirely different.
To close, let me say 2 things.
1: The strengths that we seek? They’re within us. I wrote about that in the beginning of March
2: The strengths that we possess? They’re within us. They have power. They can grow much much more than our weaknesses can. I wrote about that in the beginning of March also
Our 100% can grow. Our 100% last year might only be our 90% this year. Why do you think people like Tom Brady, Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, or Warren Buffet CONTINUE to win. Relentlessly. Because, their best, their 100% GROWS and INCREASES.
Their best is always better than it was.
One more time.
“Every day in every way, I’m getting better and better”
— Emile Coue