Thought for the day...aim for 100%

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
This piece of wisdom has kicked around in my head for days.

At a presentation last Sat the student giving the address told his younger peers that they should forget about trying to reach the qualifying grades required to enter the school.

My initial reaction was :eek:

But in the next sentence he said they should be aiming for 100% all the time in everything they do. He continued to say its unlikely they would achieve 100 but they will do better than they would aiming for 85% and coming in at 79%.

I have been thinking what pearls of wisdom there was in his statement.

I thought perhaps some of us old dogs could do with thinking like that when we do our woodworking.

Rather than us saying "nice work xyz" and adding "wish i could" or "i dont get it that good" perhaps we should be aiming for higher then we might just settle above a point where we feel less than satisfied with the approach.;):wave:
 
This is absolutely good philosophy.

You're more likely to do better if you aim beyond your reach than you will if you shoot for mediocre. You may never hit perfection, but you'll always hit mediocrity if you don't aim for perfection.
 
I believe that only aiming for what you know you're capable of will never lead to improvement or growth. You have to reach beyond in order to do your best.

One argument could be "You can't know your best if you never try to find your limits."

Doing your best sounds nice. But to me, it's more about striving for improvement. I think your best should be a never ending pursuit - a moving target. My opinion is that it's unhealthy to do otherwise.
 
I aimed for mediocrity in school (not other things) until I got out of the service after WWII. Then I went into premed with the intention of straight "As."

I didn't even know how to study, because I had never done it. I got "As", "Bs" and "Cs" without ever cracking a book. I went to dances, theater, movies, etc. approximately 7 nights per week. Who had time to study. Well I found out; what a blow. I did get straight "As" the first year except P.E. and chemistry.

P.E. didn't matter. I was small. Anyone could beat me at anything physical except rope climbing and tennis.

Chemistry was a wipe out. I studied. I answered questions correctly most of the time. But I didn't learn squat. The prof. gave over 100 "F's", 2 "As" and 6 "B's." I got one of the "B's" and should have had one of the "F's." I continued with my "B's" in chem and my "C's" in P.E. However, I had to study like a maniac.

Heck, Myrna helped me so much by asking me questions all of the time, I think she could have passed the State Board. Before we were married, she would not go out with me until I had studied; after we were married she would just whack the side of my head with a skillet if I slacked off.

All of the above is just to make the point---Aim as high as you can.

If I had studied in the lower grades, getting my Doc would have been a heck of a lot easier.

Enjoy,

JimB
 
I agree with Jason...I believe my "best" should be a target that continues to get higher and higher. How fast it grows depends on how hard I push it.

I also think it's important to keep pushing your limits and finding challenge in things you do. When I'm challenged, I tend to do a better job. For some reason, I shoot better pool if my opponent is better than me. Same thing in many other aspects of life, and sometimes the "opponent" that's better than me is my own imagination. All it takes is a bit of imagination to create a challenge for myself.
 
I also agree with Jason and my initial post should have included a statement that we are only at our best when we try to get better.

Thanks Jason for stating what I was trying to say better than I said it.

By the way one of my favorite sayings is, "Beware of the mediocre for they are always at their best."
 
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