GOOD ENOUGH, ISN’T

How many times, while doing something you really love, have you said “that's good enough”? My guess is, probably not too many. When you have a passion for something you tend to do it as well as you can. You feel an obligation to yourself to get it right.

Here’s an interesting idea. What if you applied the same thought process to everything you did? It is very simple. Good enough, isn’t.

Nothing is ever good enough. Being good enough does not imply that there is no room for growth. Instead, it says that there is no need or desire for growth. It is basically a polite way of saying, “I give up.” Don’t be pathetic. Only pathetic people give up. Don’t plan to lose. Only losers believe that being the same tomorrow is a good plan for happiness. Get off your butt and figure out what “good” truly means and then keep striving until you reach it.

Does this mean than nothing will ever be finished? No. Does it mean that you can never be satisfied or feel a sense of accomplishment? Of course not. What it means is that you should never quit. If you design a building to be four stories high, and the guy in the next lot decides he’ll build one nine stories high, it does not mean that you have failed. If you decided at the beginning that four floors will suit your needs, then your building is fine. If you decided that nine floors would have been best, but for whatever reason, you could only build four, then shame on you. If the guy in the next lot can do it, then you could have too. Unfortunately, life only gives us one chance at a lot of things. If we do not do something our best the first time, we may never get another chance.

I dropped out of college halfway through my junior year. I had been a music major, but due to injury could no longer play. I had spent the final three semesters of school majoring in business, but was uninspired and did not have a mentor or guide to help push me toward a new goal. I figured I was smart and good at sales so a took a job that was good enough. I made three times more than my friends who stayed in college. I drove a better car. I had nicer clothes.

Six years later I was in a new entry level position, starting out all over again. I took a huge pay cut and learned a new industry. I quickly moved up through the ranks and became known as one of the best in my industry. While all of this was happening, my college classmates became leaders in the dotcom craze and made millions.

Simultaneously, people who started college ten years after me, were moving up through management on the basis of their degrees, talents AND skill sets. Without a degree, I was soon working for people much younger than me and clawing to find a path for advancement. My “good enough” decision in 1991 had lead to its inevitable conclusion fifteen years later.

This posting should have been written in 1995, but I was selling clothes. It should have been written in 2000, but I was trying to find my way back to a place where my soul was allowed to speak out loud. I have finally gotten around to it. It is never too late to better than good enough.

Trust me. Define good, or even great, and then do not stop until you have reached it. Good enough isn’t. Not ever.

Running from the Avalanche

It is human nature to work hard when absolutely required and rest when possible. Unfortunately, this often makes it difficult to succeed.

Imagine the frenzy of everyday life or the swirl or projects at work as an avalanche coming down a steep hill. You need to run your fastest just stay ahead of it. If you turn your head and look back at what you have done, you are likely to stumble and be swallowed up. If you slow down you will be crushed. So you run and you run.

Finally the slope is not so steep. The avalanche slows down a bit, and so do you. The rush at work has been attacked and beaten and everyone takes a deep breath and a day off. Sound familiar? The tear in your relationship has been patched for the moment so you focus on something else. On these occasions it always seems to catch us by surprise when suddenly the slope gets steep again and the avalanche in just as close as it always was.

Why are we surprised? We didn’t do anything ourselves to slow the avalanche down. We didn’t do anything to create more space between us and the avalanche. What we should have done was build a barrier or not slowed down. We need to be smarter than the avalanche. We needed to understand that it would keep on coming, unless we had a plan to stop it or avoid it.

Defy human nature. When the slope is flat do not slow down. Create more space between yourself and the avalanche. This will give you time to think. Of course it can be exhausting in the short term, but it will give you freedom in the long term. Once you have enough space you will be able to build barriers or change course significantly enough to get out of the avalanches path.

This concept applies to work, love, school and life in general. Imagine if you had just done your high school homework as quickly as possible after school each day. What kind of free time would it have left you in the end? What could you have done with that extra knowledge when taking courses in college? How about the busiest time at your job? Imagine if you tool the month after the busiest time to fix all of that years problems and implement solutions that would be useful the following year. The reward is not so immediate, but it is bigger and better. If you did this every year, soon the avalanche would be just a memory and your life would be yours again.

This is not an easy task, but if you feel harried or stressed, or if you feel like you are never getting ahead it may be because you let the avalanche determine your speed rather than you determining the avalanches speed. Get back in control. Don’t slow down until you can control the avalanche. If it looks like the avalanche cannot be controlled then create enough space to get the hell out of its way! If you are involved in a job or in anything in life that will require to run at top speed forever you may want to reconsider your choice. Perhaps another path will give you more room to breathe and enjoy your life.

In the end you need to control your life. Sometimes that means expending effort to save effort. Don’t spend you life running from the avalanche. Run fast and hard early so you can rest and relax later.