Don’t Just Try—Thrive! The Life-Altering Power of Giving Your All!
How my father’s advice transformed my life.
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers About The Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and founder of BestPsychicDirectory.com. You’re reading Bob Olson Connect, where you get to read his articles before they become books.
In this fifth article in my series of secrets for a joyful, successful, and fulfilling life, I share the secret everyone knows, but few people implement. It’s about giving your best effort when doing something, which is much more important than being the best at everything you do.
Today’s secret is advice every young person should be given. I’m curious if anyone taught you this when you were young. I gave you the first secret of life, which was all about passion. I gave you the second secret about developing a sense of purpose. The third secret is about asking for help in life. The fourth one is about taking risks. And here’s the fifth secret.
Secret #5: Give One Hundred Percent
"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.”
~ Vince Lombardi
I wish people taught me the power of giving one hundred percent when I was younger. Because it’s become a cliché nowadays, few people pay attention to this secret of life. Yet, please pay attention to it because it’s more important than it might sound.
When I was in my thirties, my father told me, “Bob, you have never really put one hundred percent into anything.” At first, I disagreed. I was even insulted. Yet, when I thought about it, I realized he was right. And when I thought about how much I had accomplished in my life without giving one hundred percent, I began to wonder just how much I might achieve if I did.
Whether it involves a school project, a stage performance, a business venture, a relationship, a career move, a sports event, or a hobby, we take less pride in our efforts when we don’t give one hundred percent. Everything we do is a reflection of ourselves, so by providing a mediocre effort, we announce to both the world and ourselves that we are middle-of-the-road. Yet, you know that you’re so much more than average.
Some people don’t give one hundred percent out of fear that they won’t be good at something. It allows them to say, “I know I didn’t do great, but I wasn’t really trying.” That’s no way to go through life. Worse, you’ll never know how talented or skilled you are if you approach everything halfway.
Most people don’t realize that we don’t have to BE the best at everything we do to succeed in life. We only need to DO our best. We don’t have to win every game. We don’t have to get the best reviews, grades, or applause. We don’t need to have the most followers or subscribers. And we don’t have to make the most money. We only need to give our best effort.
Nobody can ask any more of us than that. When bosses, clients, coaches, and friends see that we’re giving one hundred percent, they don’t care as much about our results as they do our efforts. Likewise, it would be best if you cared more about your efforts because this approach to life teaches you what you do best. How will you ever know if you’re good at anything if you don’t give your best effort when you try?
This is so important in life that I encourage you not to do something if you don’t plan to give one hundred percent because it’ll work against your self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth. You might be a talented musician, but if you’re unwilling to practice daily, you’ll think you’re not very good at it. You might be naturally gifted at acting, but if you don’t take the time to memorize your lines in the play, you’ll never truly know if you could make a career out of it. You might be an extraordinary photographer, but you’ll never know if you don’t learn how to operate a camera.
More importantly, by producing less than you can deliver, you’ll slowly lower your standards, perhaps even unknowingly, and begin to expect less of yourself. What happens next is that this “less than” attitude infects everything you do. People start to expect less from you because they’ve witnessed “less than” results from you in the past, and this lowered accountability leads you to live a life of mediocrity.
On the other side of this coin is what happens when you give one hundred percent. Since so few people do it, you’ll stand out among the crowd. Your friends will notice. Your teammates will notice. Your teachers will notice. Your bosses will notice. Your coaches, instructors, and clients will notice. People will begin talking about you behind your back.
“Did you see the show? That was unbelievable!”
“Were you at the game? I’ve never seen anybody do that.”
“You have to read this essay. It’s hard to believe a teenager wrote it.”
“It was a minor role, but that performance stole the show.”
Everything you do while giving one hundred percent will sparkle and shine with increased success. You’ll be seen as a winner, a leader, and the kind of person people want on their team, whether that team is in sports, business, or a circle of friends. Moreover, people will flock around you like a magnet because they’ll sense something unique about you. People want to be around people who do their best. Giving one hundred percent leads to success, and people love to be around talented, skilled, and extraordinary people.
Still, being noticed is only the first result of giving one hundred percent. When you glow by giving your all, you’re the first to get a raise, promotion, job offer, lead role, special treatment, increased opportunities, extra incentives, and better options.
Moreover, it helps you build self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth, affecting every area of your life. Everything you do with one hundred percent effort comes out better. With increased performance comes increased pride and pleasure, leading you to be the best version of yourself. While outside accolades and attention may sustain you temporarily, these inside benefits can help you long-term. Knowing you did your best is something you can lean upon if you meet with disappointment.
I smile as I write this because you already know this is true. You’ve seen how people treat the best athletes. You’ve recognized how popular the actors got after the play. You’ve witnessed how people wanted to be around the band members after they performed in the talent show. And you cheered after that student gave the inspirational speech. You know they put their best efforts into their chosen talents. Consequently, this fifth secret to life is more of a reminder than advice you don’t already know.
You know what this feels like. You’ve given many activities your all. So you’ve felt the satisfaction and pleasure of giving one hundred percent. You did it even when you could have gotten away with doing much less. That’s simply who you are. So let this secret be a reminder to continue being among the one percent of people who give one hundred percent.
Final Thoughts
What I couldn’t put into a book for graduates is that the statement my father gave me about not giving one hundred percent in my life came during a reading with a medium. Thus, my dead father’s spirit gave me this advice that I’ve since written for teenagers. Even in my thirties, when I had that early reading in my afterlife investigation, I knew he wasn’t criticizing me—he was encouraging me. I took that encouragement to heart.
As noted, I was initially taken aback by his comment but recognized there was truth in it. I had accomplished a lot in my life. I was a decent basketball player in middle school and played solos on my saxophone in the school band. In high school, I was president of my class for four years and got good grades. I even gave the student keynote address at our graduation.
I also built a small business that employed five students during high school and college. I graduated college, ran a private investigation agency for many years, and became a published author in 1999. Still, my father was accurate in saying that I never really gave any of those achievements my best effort. In hindsight, I could not help but wonder how much more I could have accomplished in those endeavors if I had.
From that day forward, I stopped giving a mediocre effort in everything I did, and everything I did benefited from the extra effort. I’m about to come out with my fourth book, have sold 100,000 copies of my first three books combined, and have 7,500,000 views on my YouTube show, Afterlife TV. I’m proud of those accomplishments.
What was more valuable than the results of giving one hundred percent in these achievements was the peace I felt knowing that my results were the best I could do. Even though I wish I had sold a million copies of my books and had more subscribers on YouTube, I felt at peace knowing I had put my best efforts into those projects.
As an older adult, I now recognize that giving one hundred percent means one hundred percent of what I’m willing to sacrifice today. In other words, I’ll give one hundred percent as long as I can remain balanced and not get stressed out in the interim. I like taking weekends off, and I’m beyond working sixteen-hour days. Does that mean I won’t work a weekend now and then? Of course, I will, but it won’t be the norm.
When I promoted Answers About the Afterlife, my publicist booked me on dozens of late-night radio shows (mostly paranormal shows). This meant being interviewed between midnight and two in the morning. That was great in my early fifties, but that’s not practical in my early sixties. Does that mean I’m not giving one hundred percent if I don’t do those shows for a new book? No way! I’m still willing to give one hundred percent. It just looks different now that I’m older. I’ve learned that one hundred percent can mean working wiser versus working harder.
Now that I’ve shared, I’d love to hear how this showed up in your life. Were you taught to give your all? Did you have people who served as good examples in this way? Or were you similar to me and learned to give one hundred percent later in life? Please share how you learned this secret in life or even who taught it. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments.
Love,
Bob
Bob Olson is the host of Afterlife TV, author of Answers about the Afterlife and The Magic Mala, and creator of the top directory of psychics, mediums, and animal communicators, BestPsychicDirectory.com. This is Bob Olson Connect, where you can read Bob’s articles before they become books.
Bob, you continue to surprise me at what you share and how it's expressed. This was a great article.... because it went beyond the 'give your all' and noted that doing your best isn't the same as being the best in the effort (compared to others)... it's about what you put into it. And I also appreciate the observation that 100% can look different for folks (and times of life); that maintaining a balance of what you want and what you give up is important too, but doesn't mean that you aren't doing 100% of your capacity.
I can appreciate where you father observed that while you were very good/successful, you still perhaps didn't give the 100% - that resonated strongly; and it becomes about the 'me' and not the public measures of success. Thank you. I will take your dad's advice to heart.