Always Do Your Best

As I have said in the past, I like to read self-help books. A while ago a couple of different friends of mine both recommended a book called The Four Agreements. They actually both recommended it to me within days of each other, which was one of those synchronicities that made me at least think to pay a bit more attention. Anyway, I found the book in a pile of free books on the street one day, and I've just recently been reading it.

The fourth agreement is "Always Do Your Best."
As I was reading this morning I came across the following passage: "keep doing your best--no more and no less than your best. If you try too hard to do more than your best, you will spend more energy than is needed and in the end your best will not be enough. When you overdo, you deplete your body and go against yourself, and it will take you longer to accomplish your goal."

This feels to me very much like what I was saying about pacing. We want to, above all, honor our health. If we sacrifice our health early in a long process, then our chances of finishing decrease. If we can continue to work while maintaining our health, we improve our chances of finishing.