do your best, let go of the rest

"For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business." — T.S. Eliot

It’s true that as human beings, we belong to a superior species on the planet, and thanks to our gifted faculties, each one of us has an incredible amount of choice with respect to how we navigate our day-to-day life and what destination we wish to arrive in the future. Our choices determine our path and our path shapes our ultimate destiny.

However, at the same time, being mere mortal, minuscule creatures on the grand scale, we have no control over everything that happens to us. We can only plan and plot to a certain degree, but the remaining portion — the part ruled by fate — is out of our grasp.

I’m sure you would be familiar with this old Yiddish adage, “Man plans, and God laughs.” Life is fickle and unpredictable; it runs along its own course. But what we do have control over is our attitude: how we respond to what life sends our way.

Here’s a simple maxim for you to remember and live by: “Do your best, let go of the rest.”

“Do your best” means focusing on the very best you possibly can do in every sphere of your life, in all things, big and small.  “Let go of the rest” means making some room to accept whatever fate has in store for you. If possible, go even further and cultivate Amor fati i.e. loving your fate no matter what.

Is this challenging? Sure. But is it worth it? Absolutely.

Keep in mind: The best way to move forward in all dimensions of life is to create a delicate balance between ambition and detachment. In other words, you must give equal weightage to “making it happen” and “letting things unfold.”

Related: focus on doing your best