Hey there, entrepreneurs and multitasking wizards.
Welcome back to the Be Well, Do Well podcast.
I'm your host, Amin, here to sprinkle a little wisdom and a lot of heart into your busy lives.
Today we're diving into a topic that's close to my heart.
Good enough is good enough.
Yep, you heard that right.
So grab your coffee or your kale smoothie and let's get rolling.
Let's start with a question.
How many times have you scrapped an idea because it wasn't perfect?
Or redone a task a zillion times?
I've been there as well.
We're bombarded with this idea of perfection in every facet of life.
From Instagram worthy home offices to those picture perfect family outings.
But here's the truth.
Chasing perfection is like running on a treadmill.
You're moving, but you're not really getting anywhere.
Remember in the world of entrepreneurship and parenting, perfect is often the enemy of done.
And let's face it, a done task beats a perfect plan any day.
Now embracing good enough doesn't mean you lower your standards.
Not at all.
It means understanding and accepting that sometimes The best you can do at the moment is absolutely fine.
It's about striking that balance where your effort meets impact.
Think of it like this.
If you're baking cookies for a school event, it doesn't matter if they're not all the same size.
Spoiler alert, they're probably gonna get gobbled up in seconds anyways.
And here's the kicker, when you adopt the good enough mindset, you're not just easing your own stress, you're also setting a powerful example for those little eyes watching you, showing them that it's okay to be human, to make mistakes, and to not always have everything in tip top shape.
Alright, time for a little story here from the trenches of my life.
I was recently asked to help on a volunteer capacity with a walk a thon, a fundraiser, and the cause is really amazing.
Initially, when I was asked, I was a little apprehensive because I didn't really know what it entailed.
I didn't know how much time it was going to take, and it had been five years since the last walk that we had done in our city.
So in 2019 we did a physical walk and since then, due to the pandemic, we hadn't had a physical walk.
It was all virtual fundraising this year we decided that we were gonna restart the walk.
And this is a big deal in our city.
There's about four or 5,000 people that attend and hundreds of volunteers.
And I was asked to be one of the members on the executive committee.
Initially, I thought to myself, I want this to be perfect.
I want everything to go well, no hitches, no mistakes, and I want our team to be perfectly trained.
And I realized that with the ten weeks that we were given to plan and execute this event, that was not going to happen.
There were inevitably going to be some issues, some hitches, some mistakes that we make on our end, and the volunteers on our team will also make.
So we decided, you know what?
Good enough is good enough.
Let's try to get it as close as we can to the previous walk, which we had some templates for, we had some processes, and next year we can take what we learned from this walk and implement it for the future and make that one even better.
I'm so glad I decided to take that approach rather than trying to make every little element of it perfect, because it made it easier for not just ourselves, volunteers and the attendees at the walk.
So how do you embrace this liberating philosophy?
Here's what works for me.
The first thing is to set realistic goals.
Break down that big grand plan into bite sized achievable tasks.
It's just like eating a pizza, one slice at a time.
In the example I gave, we had multiple areas.
We had a stage component, we had a VIP breakfast component, and each of these had to be broken down into bite sized pieces within that group.
The second thing is to timebox your tasks.
When you don't timebox, you end up giving it as much time as you have, and often that's more time than it needs.
So one of the things during the walk that we had organized was we needed a stage where we had music.
Now, my daughter was also helping with this, she was the DJ, and she did the opening ceremonies, which was really exciting for me.
And while I was helping her plan for this, we decided that well, we could take three weeks, eight weeks, whatever it needed to get it done.
But instead, we just allocated two weeks to it.
We said, let's get as much done as we can in these two weeks, and that's good enough.
And because we time boxed that, we ended up actually having a really, really good DJ set, and it worked out perfectly when that two weeks was finished, we knew that we had it almost right, we might have had to make small tweaks, but that's all that was necessary, not any big major changes.
And lastly, celebrate your small wins.
If you got through all the tasks that you within a certain amount of time, give yourself a big high five.
Do a little victory dance, and go celebrate.
Maybe go out for some sushi and treat yourself.
In the end, I want you to remember that life is just too short to spend it chasing impossible standards.
If you're a neurosurgeon or sending a rocket into outer space, sure, it has to be 99.
999 percent perfect.
But, for the majority of the tasks that we do, 80 percent is usually good enough.
As we wrap up today's conversation, I want you to think about one area in your life where you can apply the good enough mantra.
Trust me, it's liberating.
It can be in your health, in your wellness, it can be in your sleep.
Find an area where you think that you can apply the good enough principle.
Until next time, keep rocking it, and remember in the pursuit of your dreams, sometimes good enough is exactly that, good enough.
Thanks for tuning in to the Be Well, Do Well podcast, if you like what you hear, drop a review.
Stay awesome, and I'll see you in the next episode.