“Give 100 percent.” “Try your hardest.” “Do your best.” We’ve all heard those phrases a thousand times and then there’s the ever so illogical “I want to see you giving 120 percent out there!” But how often do we actually put forth all of our effort and work at what we do?
For anyone who plays or has played a sport, you can remember a coach yelling in your ear to do whatever you’re doing better: throw harder, run faster, keep your legs straighter. And for the most part, people listen to their coaches or else they sit on the bench and lose.
It’s been ingrained into our culture that sports are important. Since the days of little league baseball and peewee football, little boys are trained to want to win. Parents reward hits with ice cream cones and the game ball goes to the player who made the best out. The older the kids get, the more time is dedicated to practice and the less to homework. Weekends become nothing but basketball and volleyball tournaments and then family time, homework, church and everything else is crammed into Sunday night.
Now don’t get me wrong — I love sports and everything they represent: competition, sportsmanship, athleticism, dedication and much more. But we need to apply the attitude we apply to sports to so many more areas of life.
One of my professors made a comment in class the other day about making all the work that we do our best work. What we do in college can affect so much in life. I’m not saying that every little Bible quiz and 10-point homework assignment is going to have a detrimental effect on our lives, but it can’t hurt to try.
Life’s not a competition but imagine if it were – if everyone really tried to do everything to the best of his or her ability. We’ve all turned in projects that were thrown together half-heartedly and papers that were written at 2 a.m. the day they were due. That kind of work wouldn’t win anything.
We have the potential to do so much with our lives and it can only happen when we take opportunities we are given and really give 100 percent. It’s not always easy or fun — but neither is practicing sports.
So as the year comes to a close, treat it like the ninth inning. You’re down a run and have no choice but to give it your all. Work for the best, and in the end, don’t settle for mediocre.
Life might not be a competition, but it is a board game, so at least start strategizing, and go for the W.
