Good Enough is ENOUGH

I hope you’re doing alright, adjusting to our “new normal”.  I’ve been dreaming scenes of wartime efforts – I think it’s my psyche trying to tell my conscious mind why I’ve found it all so destabilising. 

Today I wanted to write about a new principle I’m trying to embrace, which is: 


You don’t have to go above and beyond.  Good enough is enough. 

 
Of course, old habits die hard. So I’ve been sitting here, trying to figure out how I might express this to you in an eloquent way, or offer some profound insight about a propensity to perfectionism many of us share.  But I don’t know that I have any great insights.   

I just know that with the expanse of time I’m now facing my type-A tendencies kicked in.  Without places to go or people to see to structure my days, I scheduled my waking-life down to the half-hour. 

In two weeks, I’d managed to run myself ragged and it was affecting my health.  And this is not the time to mess with your health!

I’ve since hit pause on the constant doing.  I’ve been meditating on why I have this go-go-go nature, wondering about what it is about it that is attractive, addictive even, for me.

My compulsion to go "above and beyond" has a lot tangled up in it: a desire for control, a fear of failure and an existential dread of actually being quiet.  Maybe you can relate?!

I don’t think it’s all bad though. 

I derive great joy and meaning from being engaged in projects and communities. 

The trick is, I can’t engage in all of them with equal effort and perfectionism.  (This hit me a week ago. Better late than never, but oh boy!)

So, barring my work on my book -- which is my priority -- I’m now approaching all my other projects with an attitude of “good enough”.

Here are 5 ways I’m attempting to become a person who believes  “good enough” is ENOUGH: 

  1. Listening to my body’s cues to REST

  2. Asking myself, do I really need to do this project right now? If the answer is no, put a pin in it

  3. Before I begin working on something, asking myself “What does the 'good enough' version entail?”

  4. Catching myself when I get into “above and beyond” mode and stopping

  5. Asking for and enlisting help (AKA a relinquishing control)

 
This approach is brand-spanking new for me. Let's see how it goes. 

If you’re a fellow perfectionist/type-A/go-go-go-er, I invite you to join me in simply going for “good enough” these days, and all days forward.
 

creative processHaley McGeetheatre maker, CREATIVE PROCESS, artist burnout