94%

All through my youth, my operating principle was always 110%.

Be it sports, school, hobbies… If I didn’t give it 110%, I failed.

That carried over to work life as well, eventually. I gave my work and employer my all, plus some more.

I had good success with that approach. For a period, there were trophies and awards, then next promotions and bonuses. I thought it was how the world worked. And it did work… for a while.

Then the recurring fatigue and burnouts started.
Then the chronic health conditions started creeping in.
Then the misgivings of being taken advantage of all began.

I still gave 110% despite all that, but my body stopped whispering and started screaming from trying to stay in peak performance state year on year.

This was a haaard lesson to learn and relearn. Over and over.

But I think recently I’ve made some significant progress on this. In my mid-forties. After decades of self-abuse. Something switched over the past few years. Maybe it’s being a dad. Maybe my health debt finally catching up. Maybe it’s having gone through a global crisis. Maybe it’s everything.

I stopped giving 110%.

Like how, today I got a 94% pass on my final driving theory test. Usually I would expect and worked towards 100%. So annoying, right? But this time I didn’t. A perfect 100% score is over-reach. All my life I over-reached.

So I didn’t commit that much effort. I didn’t put in the grind as much to learn. I just did what was necessary. And “necessary” in my standards meant 94%. Pretty good I would say! It felt like a more balanced and enjoyable way to go about the world.

Just… 94%. Excellent still, but sane.

I think I can live with that as an operating principle now.

94%.
Just 94%.