I’m going to propose something that directly contradicts a few values that I hold dear to my heart. What I’d like to suggest is that “good enough” sometimes really is good enough, and that to do more in pursuit of “better” or “best” is actually not good at all.
This goes against my desire to do my best in all I do, a value I get from my Christian faith (Colossians 3) as well as from my parents. It has also been said that the enemy of “best” is not “worst” but rather “good enough,” and in my pursuit of “best” I agree that “good enough” can be an enemy. I also believe that it is better to do a few things very well that a lot of things poorly, and that our society has confused busyness and multi-tasking for power and influence.
All of that being said, I’d like to balance those perspectives with the merits of “good enough.” For those of us fortunate to be blessed with education and opportunity, our scarcest resource is time. We do not have enough hours in a week to do everything and to do it to perfection. Nor should we waste our days underachieving and entertaining ourselves. So we ought to find a middle ground and invest our time accordingly.
Some might argue that it is good to prune down to a few important priorities, jettisoning everything else so that you have the time and energy to do your best in what’s left. I agree that most of us could stand to prune. But I also think there are far too many important things that make up our lives that ought not be pruned, but that also ought not be considered so vital as to have to give our best to them.
Let me take inventory of my own life. In no particular order, here are the things that make up my life:
church, community service, family, friends, logistical and emotional preparation for bringing an adopted child into our home, my marriage, my relationship with God (and related spiritual disciplines), personal maintenance (diet, exercise), professional development , school, spiritual disciplines, stewardship of our material resources (house, car, finances), things I do for fun (crossword puzzles, sports), and work.
That’s fourteen things! I have pruned significantly in many of these categories, and may have to prune entire categories altogether, but that still leaves a lot of important things that make up my life that I have somehow have to fit into 24 hours in a day, factoring in sufficient time for sleep and rest. So like a triage center, I constantly have to tend to what’s important, do good enough in some things, and leave other things on the back burner until later.
It can be hard for someone like me who is used to giving their best to everything, and who has a value for doing his best all the time, to be OK with that middle category, doing good enough in some things. But I’m realizing the merit of “good enough.” It’s not a sign of laziness or misplaced priorities, but rather a way that I can take care of things while freeing up time and energy for other things that are more important.
So I’ve gone from someone who scorned the attitude of “good enough” to one who is leery when I or others aren’t using the “good enough” to help balance their many responsibilities and worries. For to only have “do my best” and “leave it for next week” as choices is not a good way to manage scarce time.
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