Most the time we aren’t trying our best, let me go ahead and say that. I know that this is a unpopular opinion by the amount of vague posts I see telling people that they are. I know it’s a unpopular opinion based on the amount of times I’ve heard people sigh it under their breath when we both know they aren’t.

I know this, because I do it too. I claim that I’m trying as hard as I can, but I’m not. Perhaps I’m still trying- Perhaps I’m not for real reasons like lack of sleep and stress. Most of the time if I said the reason I’ve been failing instead of a lie about the amount of effort I was putting in people would be just as understanding, because they know as well as I do that life gets busy and messy, and sometimes we’re just downright lazy.

But let’s admit it, we’re not always trying our best. It’s a disappointing thing to hear ourselves say, whether or not our reasons are valid, because we know how much farther along we would be if we were. We know that we’d be five steps ahead of where we are if we gave it our all everyday, which is why we lie. It’s why we pretend that we couldn’t be any farther along.

We could be, but we still needed to be exactly were we are.

There is a quote by Walt Whitman that says “these are the days that must happen to you” and I believe he’s right. We need to fail, we need to be so caught up in the mess that is life that we don’t try our best. It’s how we learn, it’s how we have fleeting moments of pure joy uninterrupted by the duties of life, it’s how we sympathize and understand others.

But, no matter how important these days are, I also believe that we need to know that this isn’t our best. We need to be honest and aware of that because when acknowledge that, we acknowledge the need for improvement. We acknowledge our shortcomings and we acknowledge the things it would take for us to do our best.

You’re only human, you can’t give everything your best all the time, and that’s okay, but you need to stop telling yourself you are, so when the time for improvement arises, you know exactly how to react.