I am sure you like me had school report cards that often read: “could do better”?
There’s a quote by Maya Angelou that says: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
What I like about this quote against the school report cards is that the first one always feels like we’ve let ourselves down and everyone else, whereas the quote indicates our path in life is growth and we do this in our own time and in our own way..
Compare that quote with this one also from Maya Angelou which reads: “I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
For me, this quote says what we did then is ‘good enough’ and now we have a better understanding of ourselves and what we can and need to do we can try to stretch ourselves more.
So, how can we do better?
Making Improvements – noticing which areas you need or want to work on for personal or professional development that will help us work more effectively or efficiently; determining the priorities of what we need to do so we can plan accordingly
Problem solving and solution finding – this is where we have to bring out our creative side and consider what the issues or problems are that need to be solved, fixed or refined and look for possible solutions, ensuring we consider all our options
Obstacles and Opportunities – we are either an obstacles person or an opportunities person, a pessimist or an optimist; either way we still need to create a route map through what we need to do and keeping positive to achieve what we want
Be creative and do things differently – the definition of insanity is repeating the same action expecting a different outcome; it’s important we think outside the square and be creative and look at as many options as possible so we get the best result we can
Make changes and review – whilst it’s important to create a plan and develop actions to achieve that plan, it’s also important to make changes along the way and review where we might alter our course to take a different path due to changed circumstances
Effectiveness and efficiency – the first point talked about this; it’s so important we consider how efficient we are currently and how effective we want to be; by determining this we can see where we are at and what course of action we need to take
Remember, that anything we do at the time should be seen as being good enough and that we are always learning and always striving to learn new things and find better ways, we are a ‘work in progress’. If we apply this approach, we are more likely to be open to see how we can do better in a positive way which will lead to greater results to create the future we really want.
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