Why do we do our best?

Today before karate started, my brother and I were sitting on the carpet waiting for the Junior Belts section to finish. They were a group of kids ranging from 5-12 years old. Sensei Jesse asked all of them to settle down and answer the question for the day; Why do we do our best?

The kids started raising their hands. Their faces looked so eager to answer. A kid up front in the left said "So we could motivate ourselves to be the best!" A girl on the right of him said "So we could better ourself." A kid in the back right said "For motivation". There were many eager hands that were given a chance to answer. The last suggestion striked me as ironic for the day... He said "If we do our best, we'll be perfect."

After all the hands were put down, Sensei Jesse gave his words of wisdom. "To do our best is to give our all. Motivation brings us to do our best, which is correct because we'd like to better ourselves. When we says we're going to try our best, it really means I'm going to do well. You may do horrible, but you did well, didn't you? You may have been exceptional, but you really did well. Whenever you failed, say you did well. Whenever you succeed, you did your best. But never ever do you do your worse because you tried at some point. You never gave up. Am I right? Alright. Sayonara." And the kids bowed.