Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming. -John Wooden(1910-, American Basketball Coach)
There are two ways (of many I'm sure) to look at the idea of giving your best. The above quote is a great summation of what arete is all about, becoming the best that you are capable of becoming. It's about doing all that you can whenever you can. The other way is that of Sean Connery in the rock... "Losers always whine about giving their best, winners go home and fuck the prom queen." In a certain way both ways are right on. Too often today we transpose "best" and "try". You'll hear it all the time, especially in amateur sports "don't worry about it, you gave it your best", which really means "you merely tried asshole and now we're going to lose because you couldn't stand up and show what you're made of." But it's easy to see, it's rarely difficult to tell the difference between trying and giving your best. This has a great deal to do with quality and our ability to recognize it but our inability to define it. We will all agree that such a thing as quality exists, however, once we begin defining it, all we are doing is defining certain characteristics, not quality itself. The same goes for arete, you can't really nail it down to a definition because the true definition is different for every person... it's about reaching full potential but that summit is different for each individual. So my advice is this, do your best, succeed in fulfilling your true potential and through this you will have succeeded in life. And no matter win or lose, if you do the above, I say go home and fuck the prom queen anyways.
There are two ways (of many I'm sure) to look at the idea of giving your best. The above quote is a great summation of what arete is all about, becoming the best that you are capable of becoming. It's about doing all that you can whenever you can. The other way is that of Sean Connery in the rock... "Losers always whine about giving their best, winners go home and fuck the prom queen." In a certain way both ways are right on. Too often today we transpose "best" and "try". You'll hear it all the time, especially in amateur sports "don't worry about it, you gave it your best", which really means "you merely tried asshole and now we're going to lose because you couldn't stand up and show what you're made of." But it's easy to see, it's rarely difficult to tell the difference between trying and giving your best. This has a great deal to do with quality and our ability to recognize it but our inability to define it. We will all agree that such a thing as quality exists, however, once we begin defining it, all we are doing is defining certain characteristics, not quality itself. The same goes for arete, you can't really nail it down to a definition because the true definition is different for every person... it's about reaching full potential but that summit is different for each individual. So my advice is this, do your best, succeed in fulfilling your true potential and through this you will have succeeded in life. And no matter win or lose, if you do the above, I say go home and fuck the prom queen anyways.
top pic: me and kyson after our 6 miles this morning
middle: kyson getting his flea bath
bottom: our little lap dog
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