"Giving 100%" and "trying your best" does not mean literally trying as hard as you can

For some very confusing reason, these phrases are metaphorical. Your nurotpyical classmates and coworkers are not putting every ounce of effort they have into being productive. I know taking these phrases literally can burn us out incredibly fast, so I thought of a metaphor that might help

Imagine school/work/productivity is like a marathon; the strongest, most well trained runners on the planet can't sprint an entire marathon. "Giving it your all" means jogging at a sustainable pace, caring for yourself by drinking water, eating healthy food and taking necessary breaks to recover

Often times the most important thing to the people saying "try your best" or "give it 100%" is that they see effort. The human brain is terrible at internalizing statistics, we have incredibly overturned pattern recognition that will prioritize anecdotal information over facts more often than not. Unfortunately, making your work visible is often the most impressive thing you can do for whoever is in charge

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk and I apologize for any terrible dyslexia fueled spelling errors in the post lol