Jan 12, 2009
When Mediocrity Is Enough
Image Courtesy of dyanna on Flickr.
We want excellence. Some of us, who may have been raised by perfectionists (ahem), might want perfection. We've been trained to it; we expect it; we have an inner drive not just to do well, but to do BEST. And best, for us, means perfect.
Problem: How do you know when you reach perfect?
Loosen the Standard
I've learned to loosen up on my perfect standards in a lot of things, like cleaning, decluttering, laundry, meal planning. (Babies have a way of helping you out with that.) Something imperfect, yet actually done, becomes enough in most things. It's enough, even though it's not my ideal. I accept it, but I don't like it.
Planning vs. Doing
When I sit down to plan something, whether it be my daily schedule, the pre-school work I want to do with my daughter, or our budget, I click into full-on perfect mode. The result? I'm spending hours tweaking a plan in order to get it perfect, and zero time implementing the plan. It's never perfect enough.
I realized this perfectionist problem a few weeks ago, when I was tackling a revised schedule for us. I'd let pregnancy fatigue, stress, and then holidays get me to a place of just wandering through the day, basically. I could feel it pulling me down, stressing me out even more, so I knew it was time to take charge and get myself and my household in some kind of order. I started jotting down a few lines and it hit me: The reason (or one of the reasons) I've failed so often in reaching goals, resolutions, challenges is not because they are too difficult to reach; it's because I spend my time refining the goal and/or method of reaching it and as a result am not consistent in simply taking action.
And that lack of consistency leads to failure.
Action Is Key
I realized that what I had to do this time was simply make a schedule. Any schedule. What didn't really matter. Perfection on the plan was unimportant. What really matters is being consistent in sticking to it.
So I wrote down my plan, stopped tweaking it, and have since just focused on doing it. I am doing far better with this than I have with any other schedule I've attempted. My focus is on the doing, the action, not on the real-or-imagined possibility of perfection.
In most of life, mediocrity isn't what I want. Accepting the mediocre can have very bad consequences. As my pastor says, "Good is the enemy of the best." However, in some things, simply DOING is the point. In the case of planning and acting, perfection is not helpful. It is the enemy of success.
A mediocre plan well executed will beat a brilliant plan poorly executed every time.
---------------------------
Image Credit: dyanna on Flickr.
