Ok, this entry is a response to something my good friend Mark said today. We laughed about it, but I thought a bit more about it and let me explain my conclusions. This is not to say that you shouldn’t live life at 100% sometimes – 100% is good, 100% is all in. But the 80% that I talk about comes from the times in my life when I’m a bit burnt out, or stressed about success. Even when it comes to surfing – something that I love and enjoy to no end – if I try to surf everyday, I get burnt out. It begins to feel more like a chore or an obligation… which it is. It is an obligation to myself, but not fulfilling that obligation to myself feels like I’m letting myself down, or being lazy. We judge ourselves so easily and criticize our actions too often. If I live my life at 80%, there is a comfortable amount of legroom to stretch out every once in a while, take a break without the guilt of “not doing something”. Living at 80% is a comfortable pace that allows you to challenge yourself and do it at a pace that you can handle. Life is a mental game that challenges us everyday, and falling behind in that game only makes it that much harder to catch back up. Keeping pace is one of the most important things, otherwise in the long run, you run the risk of losing the race. As we learnt when we were kids, slow and steady wins the race. True true. So live life at your 80%, every once in a while striving for 90% or 100%. Keep your pace attainable and allow yourself to enjoy the ride along the way. Take turns running with your head up and down. Cause if you always run with your head up, you’ll trip over things. If you always run with your head down, you’ll just miss everything.