Does it really get easier?

I’m doing my best and every day it gets a little bit easier.

So it’s only Day 3 of the 30-day Loving Kindness Challenge and already I have a hard one! I have to admit I’m a little bit stumped on this one. I’ve been staring at this screen for a while, trying to decide how to approach this post.

My husband doesn’t agree with this particular affirmation, claiming that if you are really doing your best, it should get harder as you go along because you are moving forward.

I guess it depends on what it is that you are doing your best to do. In the case of losing weight, I think that if you keep doing your best every day, it gets easier. For a while. Then you reach a point where the things that were working before are not enough. In order to keep losing weight you may have to change things up a little: increase the intensity or frequency of your workouts, or change up the diet slightly or even dramatically to keep from getting bored.

If you are doing your best at work, maybe the reward for that is more work. Or a promotion with new, more challenging work. That’s not exactly easier.

But if it’s something as ordinary as writing a blog post every day, or taking a picture every day, or even writing in a journal on a daily basis, maybe it does get easier. It gets easier for the simple reason that you get in a routine; it becomes a habit.

In the case of my paella manifesto, it is getting a bit easier. I’ve tried several recipes, some very complex with many ingredients, and some a little bit simpler. What I’ve found is that my first attempt was definitely the hardest (I’m sure mostly because it was the first attempt) but also, my favorite so far. It was also the recipe with more “from-scratch” ingredients and techniques, and had the most variety of seafood. So does this mean that my best wasn’t the easiest?

Now that I’ve rambled for a while and probably lost anyone attempting to read this, I really have no conclusions to offer, nor do I think that I’ve accomplished the goal of focusing on what is supposed to be my positive affirmation for today. But in the end it did get me to thinking about whether I really am doing my best. Is this post my best work? Not by any means. Did I do my best at work today or was I just going through the motions? Did I do my best to work out hard in my Zumba class tonight?

Today’s affirmation may not have succeeded in making me feel great about myself, but I think it did cause me to evaluate how I do everything I do every day: to take stock of the level of effort I’m exerting. The truth is I haven’t always tried my best. So tomorrow is another day, right? I’m going to give “my best” another shot. I’d better take my vitamins.