Our Current Level of Skill

No matter who we are, we are always working within our current level of skill. Our skill sets also involve our skillful dealing with our varying emotional, mental, and physical states, each shifting from time to time, each presenting a different challenge.

Perhaps the idea of "doing our best", which implies there is a state of "not doing our best" is a misnomer. For every given moment and situation, we actually are already doing our best based on how skillful we are for the given circumstances. We may have flashes of brilliance, but often times those only give us glimpses of where we are trying to get to.

Every situation, every encounter where our skill sets are challenged, no matter the outcome, are constant opportunities for learning... And within learning there also exists a sub-skill set of "learning to learn".

Also interesting to note, we are often judging ourselves and others for "not doing their best"... When in fact we were actually doing our best, but were unskillful for that particular situation, and we feel sorrowful that we could not get the outcome we desired, or the outcome that others desired. Judgment in the form of punishment often creates tension, which hinders relaxation, which hinders the learning process, slowing the process of learning how to get desired outcomes... With all of that said, learning to adopt a mindset that fosters learning is also a skill to be developed... There is judgment involved in all actions taken, but perhaps it's better to use judgment to label an outcome as desired or undesired.