More Than One Hundred

Have you ever been asked to give more than 100%?  Before a big game, the coach might give a pep talk and say we really need to give it 120% today.  I understand, figuratively, that this means give it your ALL.

But really, is there any more than 100%?  Isn’t 100% my ALL?

So if you’re being asked for more than that, does that really mean that, up to this point, all that has been expected is about eighty?  More than one hundred doesn’t exist, but asking for even more effort has become the norm.

Can you get more than all your sleep?
Can you win more than the entire prize?

I once told a former employer “I’ll give it my best”.  His retort:  “Your best won’t be good enough.”  A telling moment telling me time to go. Why wouldn’t my Best be good enough! Cause there isn’t any more. (The honest truth is that I was just trying to placate him with a stock answer.  And he knew it.  But, in theory…)

Or, if the truth were told, would we have to admit to performing only about 80% regularly?  (And sometimes and some of us, less than that!)

I remember once, in junior high school track, pushing myself so hard in the third leg of a relay race that I caught up and passed the competition and we won the race!  And broke a state record!  If that is my true 100%, dedicated energy pushing past my comfort zone, then yes…I generally only operate around a relaxed and complacent 80%.

And maybe that, then, is the difference between plain-old success and greatness.