Not good enough

Tons of companies have made as fortune off of “good enough.”

Convenience foods that are good enough when you’re too tired to cook. Sending an email because a card is too time-consuming. Shortcuts to bypass hard work. Last-minute planning. Half-hearted workmanship. Anything that falls short of perfect but still does the job.

Good enough is pretty great, actually. When you’re stressed and don’t want to totally cop out of something you can always settle for good enough. And let’s face it, sometimes good enough is a good as it gets because sometimes good enough is the best you can do.

But I think a lot of the unfulfillment we feel in our modern lives stems from settling for good enough. The world tells us it’s OK to be good enough or do something just well enough, and we’re so accustomed to convenience that we feel unduly burdened by any extra effort. Being a dutiful employee is old-fashioned. Cooking a cake from scratch is archaic. Calling all our family members individually in lieu of a mass email is just foolish. … or so the world would have us think.

But so much in life is rewarding because of the work involved. It’s usually the road to get somewhere that means more to us than the final destination. Our proudest accomplishments aren’t when we opted to do something the easy way but when we forced ourselves to do something that was hard - when we said no to good enough.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a fan of stress. I think good enough should be good enough in many areas of our lives. You just have to decide what ones they are.

If an assignment at work is overwhelming, delegate! If planning and preparing a big soiree by yourself makes you sweat, order some pizza and tell your friends to bring the drinks.

But usually it’s not dinner parties we end up regretting. It’s good intentions that never turn into actions that haunt us. It’s not doing enough for others that is rarely good enough

So make a pledge to yourself that you won’t settle for good enough as much; that only your best will be good enough.

Because while good enough feels good, your best feels better.

I promise.



LABL Step #2: Write down three areas where only your best will do.