Your Best Work Ever.

I have a weird question for you today:

What would you do if you knew that this year, you were going to do your best work ever?

Back in February 2020, I was feeling quite pumped about some of the great projects I was working on. One day, riding high on a current of momentum and positivity, I said to myself: you’re going to do your best work ever this year.

Of course, by March, the world was turned upside down. Like many others, I wondered what the pandemic would mean for my projects. (And of course, so many people were left wondering how and when they could return to work at all.) 

There’s no doubt about it: things are different now, in different ways, for each of us.

Yet I keep coming back to this idea: what if despite (or even because of) the turbulence, change, loss, and disruption… we actually did our best work ever? 

I wonder: if we were to look back and say that this year we did our “best work ever”, what would we attribute to such an accomplishment?

Would it be because we dug deeper, wrote or worked with more honesty, vulnerability, or compassion?

Because we doubled down on our commitment to making a contribution, in whatever way that looks like for each of us?

Because we saw the importance of community and collaboration, and found new ways of working together?

Because we were forced to learn new things, work within constraints, and tell stories in new ways?

Because we chose to harness the grief or loss or confusion, and channel it into a new creative output?

Because we let go of some old stories that were sticking around, and wrote a new narrative for ourselves?

Because we said “screw it, let’s do it”, broke the rules, and didn’t hold back?

Because we leaned into the time we had and pushed ourselves to create?

Or because we did the opposite — we gave the work a break, did something different, took a pause, and then produced something remarkable when we returned?

We all have different situations and different stories to tell. But if we believed that our best work was on its way (or even happening right now), I wonder… might that change how we approach today? 

Might it change what we say, what we write, what we go big on, and what we let go of? What we create, and what we contribute?

Let’s find out.