In Defense of Good Enough and a Little Something

If he said it once, he said it to me a thousand times: “The best essay is a finished essay.” And sometimes, of course, my mentor could be even quippier and say things, like “You do realize you’ll need to start so that you can finish?”

Perfection is the enemy of Completed. Sometimes, in a worse battle, Perfection is the enemy of Started.

I have a habit of procrastinating based out of the desire to have it all figured out before I start. I was also born and bred to love efficiency. I can’t do a task perfectly and fully, I don’t want to start on it at all.

Maybe you experience this nagging thing inside of your brain like I do which tells me I need to be the best at everything. Everything. Things I have no business in, even. I want to be the smartest, the prettiest, the fastest, the ____est, the most _____, the best _____—you name it. And I feel like if I don’t come out on top, then I know I must absolutely suck. If I’m not first, I make myself last.

I know I’m not the only one with this tormentor because now I see little homemade placards and Hobby Lobby signs and graphics online that say, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” And you know that’s real. Contentment flies out the window as soon as there is something new or better to compare ourselves to.

Thanks to the punchy five-word sentence and a whole host of other awarenesses and helps, I feel like popular culture is starting to make a step in the right direction with comparison. There is, I think (and I say this without having a teenager in my home), less pressure these days to be just like everyone else. Standing out it the new blending in. Some differences are better accepted in the name of tolerance and diversity.

It's like culture now trying to believe what the fifth grade teacher told us: “You are your only competition. Eyes on self. Do it better than you did it last time. Beat the person in the mirror.” Self-competition is better than comparison. Sometimes.

But it seems to me that all this does is just move the competition. What if– and hear me out– life just isn’t a competition? I mean, don’t get me wrong: I love competing. This is why I have a hard time with backyard volleyball and love whooping Wade in Uno. Doesn’t it feel so good to win?

But what if life/your career/ your whatever is not just about constantly having to one-up yourself, let alone anyone else? What if it’s good enough to be good and not perfect? What if your next _______ doesn’t have the be the best one? The next story you write, cake you bake, sale you make does not have to be better than the last. As long as it’s good, that’s good enough.

You cannot perform at 100% one hundred percent of the time. Furthermore, it’s a lie that the world needs you at 100% all the time. Adding a little goodness to the world is a really good thing.

 *** 

Once upon a time in high school volleyball, we were doing dig drills in practice. Coach Davis was slamming us with low hits we were supposed to roll through. Yours truly could not roll. I was both self-conscious and afraid of breaking my neck, so I was struggling, to say the least. Coach pulled me aside. Instead of encouraging me or griping at me, she said, “Go practice your serve.”

That confused me. Wasn’t I supposed to work harder and get better? Why was she letting me quit? She came and told me. “You stink at rolling.” (okay, probably those weren’t her exact words.) But she taught me a true life lesson that day. Play to your strengths. You have a team out there. Let them cover your weaknesses. Put your effort into something you’re actually decent at. That’s how you can contribute most.

We don’t have to be the best at everything. See also: we can’t be the best at everything or every time.

Coach Davis was also my eleventh grade English teacher and the first and only teacher to give me a C on an assignment. When I turned in a poorly annotated copy of A Tale of Two Cities, she did not say, ‘go practice your serve.’ She said, ‘do this again and better this time.’ She saw where I needed discipline. I still hate that book, but I basically annotate for a living now.

Coach was also my introduction to poetry. She didn’t just make us read it, she made us write it. I remember telling her I didn’t like poetry. She asked how I knew that, what had I read? She caught me there, and then looked at me like, I know something you don’t know. I got surprised by enjoyment, and I’m sure it why I still read and write poetry to this day. I’m not any good at it, but I sure love the heck out of it. And that’s good enough for me.

***

Give up on some things.
Get better at some things.
Do some things just because they are worth it even if you suck.

This isn’t an argument for laziness or participation trophies. This is an argument for doing it anyway. This is an argument for trying and finding out. This is an argument that a little goes a long way.

One room vacuumed is better than none.
Five pounds lost is better than none.
One paragraph written is better than none.
A relationship kinda restored is better than a life of regret.

A failing 59% is better so much better for a grade point average than a zero. I used to begggggggg students to turn in anything partial and even crappy before they just missed an assignment. I saw this over and over again that students would rather miss an assignment completely than turn in something that is incomplete.

I think this tendency exists because then we feel like we at least went ‘all the way’ on something and ‘fully committed’ to the failing instead of doing something haphazardly. But a partial something? YES, give me something to work with!

And I think that’s also how God feels.

God is like, Throw one prayer up! Take a small leap of faith one time! Open the Scriptures for just a minute! See what happens.

I think this whole conversation is why we both are encouraged and also have such a hard time believing the mustard seed saying. We doubt that a tiny anything can achieve something big. We’re wrong. You don’t need a mountain to move a mountain.

So maybe you don’t change the world (which happens to be my greatest fear, thank you, Christian school in the 2000s). But maybe you do effect someone or a couple someones. Maybe by putting a piece of yourself into the world, it’s you who are changed, and that is good enough.

*** 

Stop trying to be the best and just be you.

Take the perfection-pressure off of yourself, just start, and see what happens. How can God help you unless you start?

And how will the world ever know unless you finish?

+++

If the Lord don’t come and the creek don’t rise,

Casey