I read a number of other blogs, and I'm trying to keep the number down but the writers I like keep linking to other writers I like, and it's a slippery slope. Those I read regularly are:
Get Rich Slowly. Crazy Aunt Purl. Unclutterer. The Simple Dollar. Serene Journey. Fools and Sages. Cute Overload and I Can Has Cheezburger. (The last two, of course, don't really involve reading.)
Today on Unclutterer, a piece on "You don't have to be the best." It's a little meditation on the virtues of Good Enough. Now, I am a big fan of Good Enough and it has gotten me past a lot of little annoying roadblocks that the perfectionist part of me - or others - can come up with.
Where I tend to get stuck now is not on needing to be perfect, or to be (or do) the best at something (and this is one of the advantages of becoming a dancer in midlife. I will never be The Best, because my body simply won't do what those of dancers in their twenties will do. I can, however, be Damn Good for a middle-aged desk worker, and that's my aspiration) but on being ready to do something.
I can come up with so many ways to procrastinate on starting something because I'm not ready. I have to prepare steps i - ix before I can commence a project at step 1. I'm still pretty productive, because I recognize what I'm doing. And I don't go into a blame thing - I work hard and there's no reason I shouldn't take my own sweet time on my projects, none of which is essential to our personal economy or to the world at large. But I crack myself up sometimes with the really hard work I'll do to avoid working!
So, now that I've accepted Good Enough, I have to work on accepting Ready Enough. Because when you get down to it, a project doesn't have to be set up to go from start to finish all at once. There won't be time to finish it in one session anyway, most of the time. All I need to be ready for is step one.
I could draw a line here to health and fitness. Step one is where we always start. If we fall off our workout schedule or our nutrition plan, it's always best to go back to step one. So, as long as we're ready for step one, we can always just start back at the beginning. Once you've gone through a process a few times, moving through the steps goes faster and faster on each repetition.
I could also draw a line to dancing. Once you have a foundation in the basics, you can leave your dancing for months or even years, and when you start again you'll progress much faster than if you had never learned those basics.
Anytime I have to start over with something, I have to remind myself about Good Enough. "Ready enough" will be there in the reminders, too.
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