Lots of Native American tribes had ritual rites of passage for their young men that required them to go all in. Tests of strength and discipline and courage. Stories I’ve heard of Braves running miles and miles holding a mouth full of water and spitting it out at the end.
We not only do not require our children and young people to push themselves to
a breaking point, we actively discourage it. The world has grown afraid of extreme effort (and yet it’s all we want on tv and from our millionaire sports heroes). What happened to “I went to the Danger Zone??”
I remember in high school my cross country coach (the distance for girls was 2.1 miles) told us we weren't really trying unless we collapsed or threw up at the
finish. We trained on a ski slope. We’d run laps up-and-down the slope off-season and when he blew the whistle, wherever you were, you had to sprint. Today? He'd be sued for pushing us that hard.
Somehow, somewhere along the way, giving it everything you had became “Just do your best honey.” And do your best somehow doesn't actually mean do the very best you're
capable of doing anymore.
It is way more likely if you hear someone say "I did my best" they are defending an average to mediocre performance and that phrase shields them from further attack or questioning.
The truth is I'd never gone all in and given something everything I had until
just a few years ago, as I was building my very first global Summit (The Turning Point Summit).
