summer 2021 email series

Email 3: Embracing “good enough”

Originally sent July 1, 2021

Hi there,

Let’s talk about releasing perfection! While I’m specifically thinking about this topic as it relates to the priorities and areas to deprioritize that you’re focused on this summer, it might apply to other parts of your life too.

If you missed either of the first two installments of this email series focused on creating a great summer (both professionally and personally), consider checking those out: email 1, email 2.

Let’s revisit the to-do’s you created for yourself in order to bring your summer goals and dreams to life. If you’re anything like me, I’m guessing you’ve completed or taken meaningful action on some of them, while you keep pushing off – or have conveniently forgotten alllll about – others. Or if they’re things you meant to stop or pause doing, or change how you do them, perhaps you’re kicking that can down the road. Those are the items worth considering further.

Why are you reticent? Perhaps they’re the most annoying or tedious things on your list. Or perhaps they’re the hardest or scariest.

When things that are at least partially within my control feel hard or scary, if I dig into the “why” behind the feeling, I usually find that fear of not doing the thing well – of failing or not meeting my own or others’ expectations – lurks just below the surface. I see this same tendency among my private coaching clients too.

But if we’re able to release the pressure to do the task at hand perfectly, and to let the best effort we can muster right now be enough, we’re so much more likely to start, to make progress, and to ultimately find that we’re reasonably happy with the results.

So where are you letting perfection trip you up? If you were striving for “good enough,” what would you have already done by now that instead hangs over your head? Can you carve out an hour or two today or tomorrow to just do – or start – the thing, perfection be damned?

A dear friend of mine, who worked for a federal government agency years ago, used to say at the time, “Good enough for government work!” Now, before anyone sends me an angry email about the need to responsibly steward our taxpayer dollars, hear me out: I’m confident that this friend did quite a good job on her “government work.” She’s extremely smart and efficient, and has an impressive professional track record across the public and private sectors. But instead of hemming and hawing (or the workplace version: endlessly meeting and/or emailing) over the project at hand, as most of her colleagues did, she’d just get her work done. It left her with a lot of free time at the office.

I share that story with you in case it’s helpful to channel that spirit of “good enough for _______!” into whatever it is that’s intimidating you, paralyzing you, or otherwise tripping you up. I’m confident that your “good enough” effort will, in fact, be good enough.

Best,

Courtney