September 9, 2025
Every day here, I share a Thought of the Day and a Question of the Day—small sparks that can turn into bigger reflections. Today’s pair digs into something we all wrestle with: what “trying your best” really means, and how often we quietly settle for less effort than we could give. If you’ve ever convinced yourself you were “all in” only to realize later you weren’t… this one’s for you.
Thought of the Day: Trying your best just means you’re planning to fail later.
That one stings a little, doesn’t it? Because it pokes at the lie we tell ourselves when we say, “I did my best.” Sometimes, sure, it’s true—we pushed as far as we could. But other times “my best” is really code for “I’m okay with failing here, and I want a graceful excuse ready to go.”
Think about it: if you clean the kitchen and say you “did your best,” but the stove is still crusted over with last week’s pizza sauce, did you really do your best? Or did you do enough that you could live with it, knowing no one else is going to check under the burners?
The real problem with “trying your best” is that it sneaks in a backdoor escape plan. It’s like we’re already building the alibi before the failure even happens. Instead of asking, “Did I try my best?” maybe the better question is, “Did I do what it takes?”
This line of thinking reminds me of when I wrote about how it’s better to offer no excuse that a bad one. Perspective changes everything. If you see your “best” as a ceiling, you’ll hit it quickly. But if you see it as a floor, a baseline, you push further.
And sometimes, “trying your best” is just a way to stay comfortable instead of risking the full effort that might actually move the needle. Comfort feels good. But growth doesn’t come with a blanket and slippers.
Question of the Day: How often do you half ass what you’re doing?
If we’re being brutally honest, the answer is probably: more than we’d like to admit. I half ass plenty. Folding laundry? If the clothes make it into drawers, I’m counting that as a win. Writing? Sometimes a post feels like it’s humming, other times I’m dragging words across the page like a stubborn toddler at bedtime.
The scary part is how easy it is to normalize half-assing. You do it once because you’re tired. Twice because you’re distracted. Suddenly, it’s just how you operate. And the more you get away with it, the easier it is to convince yourself you’re still “trying.”
But here’s the flip side: half-assing isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes it’s survival. If you’re a parent, you already know this. Dinner some nights is a gourmet meal, other nights it’s “the kids are eating frozen waffles and cheese sticks because that’s all I’ve got left in me.” And that’s okay.
The key is knowing the difference between half-assing as a strategy versus half-assing as a lifestyle. The first is self-preservation. The second is self-sabotage.
I wrote not long ago about how people want you to do well, but not better than them. Half-assing can be tied to that too. Sometimes we play smaller than we could because it feels safer. No one judges you for failing if you can claim you didn’t really try. But what if the very thing holding us back is the comfort of being able to shrug and say, “Oh well, I only gave half effort anyway”?
Where This Leaves Me (and Maybe You Too)
I think today’s Thought and Question of the Day connect in an uncomfortable but liberating way. “Trying your best” can often be the elegant cousin of “half-assing.” Both let you off the hook. But the growth happens when you recognize those patterns, call yourself out, and decide that “enough” isn’t good enough anymore.
So maybe the real challenge is this: the next time you’re tempted to do just enough, try doing what it actually takes. Not “your best.” Not half-assing. Just the thing itself, fully. You might surprise yourself with what you can actually pull off.
So… how often do you half ass what you’re doing? And do you catch yourself hiding behind “I tried my best”? Drop your thoughts in the comments—I’d love to hear your take.
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