Good enough

How many wonderful ideas or product plans have been scrapped because they were not perceived as good enough.

by Karen S. Adams — 

How many tasks have you started yet never completed because you did not think they were going to turn out perfectly? We may be aware that perfection is forever out of reach, but that does not stop us from trying to achieve it. Manufacturers use employees to check for imperfections in their products. Produce is picked over and prodded as consumers seek out perfection.

But what has happened to good enough? During the Olympics, a winner of the silver medal was asked how it felt to have lost the gold medal, as if second place was not good enough. Yet just trying out for the Olympics or making the team is good enough. In fact, winning any medal is extraordinary — more than good enough.

Often we start projects which are never finished because we begin to think the outcomes will not be good enough. As soon as we get started, we begin to berate ourselves over the flaws we see or expect to see. We may even wonder what others will think. Who knows how many wonderful ideas or product plans have been scrapped because they were not perceived as good enough.

Sometimes, not being good enough gets attached — not to the things we do — but to who we are. If we examine every thought we have and the things we do or do not do, we may imagine that we have more flaws than we do in reality. Feeling not good enough can deplete our energy and keep us from trying new things, as we fear failure. So, what can we do?

Here are three things you can do to change your feelings from negative to positive.

1. Finish projects, and keep in mind that if it is a first attempt, it is good enough.
2. If you have done the best you can, this is good enough.
3. If you are being your true self and smiling twice a day, you are good enough.

Karen S. Adams is a licensed clinical social worker and a nationally certified biofeedback therapist in private practice with Life Coping Consults in Phoenix. 602-274-3492, lifecopingconsults.com or [email protected].

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 29, Number 6, Dec 2010/Jan 2011.