How much work and contribution, creative and otherwise, do you think is lost to the world by never being produced in the first place?
How many projects out there don’t just remain unfinished, but tragically never started in the first place?
There is a balance to be struck between getting things done, and getting things done really well.
Most times in life, whatever it is we want to achieve can be fulfilled by the former (just “getting it done”) so that we can reserve our energy for when the real work really needs it (“getting it done well”).
Giving yourself permission
Far from being a cop-out, allowing “Good Enough” to be good enough as a standard of what you’re working to grants so many positives:
More work gets started.
Less energy is used up.
Fewer resources are used.
Less research needs to be done
Less stress gets invented!
More things get done.
And all of this action, leads to more action, and more unexpected results along the way.
Energy
“Good enough” is an enabler to get more done, mark more projects as completed, and to simply move on and let go.
Let that sit with you for a moment; when you get it done, you can move on and let go.
How liberating!
The 80/20 principle comes into play once again; the first 20% of your efforts tend to produce 80% of the results, but the next 80% produces 20%, or maybe even less, of the remaining results.
Those fine details, those marks of craftsmanship, those extra bits of attention which set apart good work from amazing work – that could be what we find in that final 20%, but it isn’t always necessary or guaranteed.
Always, always ask better questions:
Who is this for?
How could I be making this harder than it needs to be?
Does this need to be perfect?
What could the easy version of this look like?
What does done look like?
Unexpected results
Imagine sitting in a car, or being on a bicycle, and wanting to get somewhere, but to be able to start your journey every single traffic light needs to be green. (I first heard it put this way in this book.)
Before you can even set off, all lights are required to be green?! That’s ridiculous; nobody would ever settle for that! Yet how many times do we excuse our inaction or postpone completion of something until things are “juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust right!”.
Now wonder for a moment, that you’re on that same journey, you’ve made the start, but after a couple of lights you get a feeling to take a few unplanned turns; a right, then a left, onto a new street. Maybe it’ll help with traffic…maybe you’ve got the urge for exploring new areas…
“Hey! Look at that! We’ve never been down here before; look at all the trees and beautiful gardens. What a lovely street…and wow, it’s 5 minutes faster too!”
The point being of that very scrappy and loose analogy is that just by clearing the roadblock of making a start and taking those first steps, you might end up making choices and being in a place you never expected to be in during your rigid initial plan, but ended up being far more wonderful than you could’ve expected.
So then…
Make a start.
Start the projects.
Define what ‘Done’ looks like.
Do the stuff.
Make the things.
and allow “Good enough to be good enough” in your life.
I’m not saying “Be lazy”. I’m saying “Be good,” but really, “Be intentional” with your limited time, attention and energy.
-Frank
Further ramblings & readings – “The work not done at all.”
Perhaps part of ‘Perfectionism’ and spending far too long on the minute details is that we fear we will receive overly critical judgement around our work. Criticisms like “this part could’ve been better” or “why did you do it that way?” or “where’s this part?”.
Maybe the fear or feeling would be better directed towards asking; what if we hadn’t produced anything at all!
Is it not more likely that, rather than being judged for what we thought a ‘perfect piece of work’ was missing, we’ll be questioned harder about why we produced nothing in the first place?
My biggest hope here is that you produce the things you’re desperate to produce, and you bring into the world that which you’re so desperate to share.
I’ve been reading “Building A Second Brain” by Tiago Forte recently and more than being a ‘productivity’ or ‘knowledge management’ book, it is one to help you unleash your creativity, find your passion, and be more present in the moment of now…El Franko Recommends!
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