Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can achieve excellence.
Vince Lombardi
Sick day
I took a sick day today. Some weird combination of vertigo and nausea. I’m writing this at midday, no longer nauseated but still somewhat dizzy. I decided to catch up on some maker videos that have been collecting digital dust in my bookmarks folder.
And today’s theme was perfectionism. Not really, this was not a curated list on a subject, but several of my bookmarked makers had the same thing to say, which boils down to: good enough is good enough.
All creators that I follow tend to have their own insights and points of view. I follow a lot of creators that are around my age or older, but I also follow quite a few that are much younger than I am. They have a fresh perspective that lets me re-frame the issue without the decades of clutter my brain has built up. The spark for this post came from a young maker who said, “Begin with the basics, then build up from there.” And I watched him turn this “good enough” theory into a finished product.
The theory and practice of analysis paralysis
Lately, I’ve been batting around this idea for organizing my workspace. YouTube knows this, and tends to feed me videos about shelves and whatnot. Some of it is pure clickbait drivel, some is impractical (for me, at least), and some of it has the perspective that gives me the kick to get out of analysis paralysis.
That’s because analyzing the topic to death is one of my biggest weaknesses.
Not always, of course, because there are lots of projects and infrastructure ideas that I’ve planned and implemented. Sometimes you have a pain point, you see a solution, and you execute the solution. Other times I start with a simple idea and start building castles in the air until I’m searching the internet for $200-a-pair full extension drawer slides, when what I need is a 12-inch by 30-inch shelf. Analysis paralysis.
And then I have to remind myself of a precept learned long ago: don’t let perfection stand in the way of progress.
The path forward is not always clear. You can lose yourself in planning every detail and planning for every scenario to the extent that nothing actually gets done. Begin with the basics, then build up from there.
There is excellence, and there is good enough.
Van Neistat
Perspective
When I started the day feeling sick (especially feeling vertigo, which I don’t think has ever happened to me), I worried, as one does, about what might happen. Was this a brain tumor? Was I having a heart attack? You get to a certain age and that’s immediately where your mind (and WebMD) goes.
So I called out of work and rested. And after a while started to feel better and grabbed my laptop and started catching up on videos. And of course when I have a little bit of mental space, my brain starts to spark. And this concept of “good enough” that was repeated coincidentally across several different videos really resonated with me. Yes, I really should tackle some of those organization projects I’ve been kicking around. Some of them are simple, might only take a few hours or a few days to complete. And then I can build from there.
Oh, yeah, and write up a blog post about it, because I shouldn’t use power tools until I’m better.
But also, doing nothing but planning isn’t going to help me whatsoever. And what if I really was badly ill today? What if my life changed irreversibly between yesterday and tomorrow?
What you can do, your focus, your goals, your financial and temporal freedom, will change. Do what you are able to now. Because who knows what you will be able to do tomorrow?
