What is your best?

My mother sent me this link and it is a video that makes you think - well at least makes me think - it has been a time coming for another rant and this definitely could be a random one - what is the difference between giving what we think is all we have and giving all we really have? - there is a fight in our minds about what is reality versus what is a possible perception - from the video posted along with this rant this football player must step away from what you thinks is possible from what he perceives as doable instead of looking at the final destination or how far he probably could go he is asked to simply push himself without knowing how far he has traveled to his limit during his journey - when you are weightlifting can you really lift that bar one more time? Or do you believe that you already have lifted it eight times and that is enough - or do you make excuses do you think you are unable or are you alone without a spot maybe you do not feel like you can risk it - if you are sprinting alone maybe you quit one lap earlier - these are moments when we could ask did you push yourself to your very limit - often times we cheat ourselves - we are not cheating anyone else at the end of the day -and when I look back a true gift is someone who does not need anyone pushing them but instead have this incessant need to push themselves - but is that healthy? - there are times I get wrapped up on an idea and I continually try to figure out how to say this or how to do that - I will replay the scene in my head hundreds of times trying to think of every possible scenario - but why? why do I push to understand silly situations or simple questions I feel compelled to ask - why do I push to figure out a question that if I fail to answer will pester and make me ponder what the answer could possible be for hours - students ask me all the time about assignments do I have to do this do I have to do that - and they are probably playing out every scenario - my easy answer is simple but complex: you should do your best - but what if your best takes 6 hours and the assignment is supposed to take 20 minutes? When should we push ourselves to our limits and when should we focus on other things? Too often today we are pushing to finish and racing to complete a to do list that is endless - and we do not take time to see where we need to put our focus - for me it was easier in college when I was training for basketball - that would be my focus - I would train, I would take 500 jumpers a day - now where do I push myself to be my best? When is the cost to benefit ratio begin to splinter and crack and fall back? Sometimes we all must look at pushing ourselves to our limits to our breaking point just to see where that is - we can push ourselves in any number of ways - we can push ourselves athletically by working out to exhaustion - this is a benefit I see to the marathon running people do - marathons are unhealthy - you are pushing your body past your limit yet people live and breath to train for a marathon - not to bash anyone of you but running a handful of marathons makes sense (much more and I would question why do you need such control?) you are pushing your body to the brink - pushing it past what you thought was possible - you are running on legs that you barely can feel and you must put mind over matter and you prove to yourself that you are capable of more than you could ever have imagined - we an also do this with our thinking - do you allow yourself to be challenged to push your thinking past the comfortable - where does faith versus religion versus belief come into play - that is different for everyone - and that is the beauty of pushing yourself to your limit - to pushing yourself to your breaking point - that point that moment that single scene it is yours and yours alone - and you own that moment, that point, that scene, and that journey - and as some of the smartest people I know have told me: the journey is more important than the destination - the journey is where you learn and grow and push yourself to discover who you are in reality not in perception -