The concept of being “good enough”
“Never go behind perfection, find happiness in what you have” - Sushmitta Shetty
Perfectionism is a personality trait that is generally characterised by striving for flawlessness. It can be manifested in a comparatively positive way when it advances people to set hight standards. But it can also be detrimental when it causes us to chase unreachable goals or to waste time concentrating on insignificant details while at the same time being excessively critical. Quite often perfectionism gives us an excuse to procrastinate and withhold us from taking action for the fear of failure.
Being imperfect is human. Striving towards perfection takes us further away from what is genuine and real. Our cultural structure promotes the hight pressure for perfection. Feeling of not being enough is rampant in our society that promotes competition, quick fix and continual progress taking away living an authentic life.
The idea of good enough proposes that we should identify the stage past which applying more resources into something will not advance it in a significant matter, therefore we should finish with it and move on.
Implementing the idea of good enough does not mean that we should automatically aim to do work of a low quality. Instead, we ought to recognise what good enough means in our specific circumstances, taking into consideration outcomes of our work and what we are hoping to achieve. Of course, it will differ depending on the scenarios and in some situations our standard for good enough end up being quite high.
People who are prone to perfectionism may benefit from implementing the idea of good enough as it can help common traps associated with perfectionism, like tendency for procrastination or avoidance. But, at the same time, perfectionists may find challenging to implement this idea because it contradicts their desire to be as perfect as possible.
Ways to implement the good enough principle
Identify what your goal should be in practice. Accept that your work does not need to be perfect to achieve your goal,
Ask yourself what you are afraid of when your work is finished at the good enough level. Think through your fears to find out if they are based on facts,
Think how you could use your resources if you stop deplete them on projects that passed the good enough point.
