I had laboured over a writing project for more than five years. I had collected so much information that I was overwhelmed at the thought of putting it all together. I had been stuck in limbo for far too long.
One Arctic blast during a winter weekend was ideal. I didn’t know I wouldn't have to work until the weekend arrived. Not knowing I had two consecutive days off meant I hadn’t planned any extracurricular activities. Frigid, subterranean winter temperatures prevented me from even wanting to leave the house.
I turned the daycare playroom into an "office space" and simply closed the door. It was like I was away on a mini-retreat for two entire days. And all I had to do was clear the clutter out of the room I inhabited for the weekend.
I puttered. Slowly but surely, I cleared out some of the clutter in my brain and assembled my notes, scribblers and various other means of collecting memories. It took a good day to settle myself back into where I last left off. But the next day, I started moving forward.
There was so much more to do. I had created a monster. I had two computers and was working on this project on both computers. One computer kept crashing and saving a backup copy of my book in progress, so I had two files on one computer that did not match each other, nor the file on my laptop. Not only did I have three versions of the book project to integrate, I had my original outline in progress I had been working from and notes, scraps of paper, letters and emails to sort through again. I had to ensure I had all of the information in one place before I could get rid of the excess files.
I had done this to myself. Simply ensuring I had all of the information in one spot felt like an onerous task. Then, the task was to pull it all together in a way that told a story. That was the part that had overwhelmed me.
The other variable that paralyzed me was the fact I had done this once before. As soon as the end product was finished, I was thinking of ways I could do it better the next time. I set the bar so high I couldn't even see it any more. It felt like an elusive dream that may stay forever out of reach.
I had been talking myself out of the idea of "perfection.” I knew it would never be good enough to meet my own standards. I knew there were many others who could do so much better than me. I could already feel the disappointment as I failed to meet my own expectations.
I had been talking myself down for a while. Then, I read this: “Everything worth doing is not worth doing well. Perfect is the enemy of done. Good enough is the friend of done. In sum: perfect is our enemy and good enough is our friend. We need to do it and be done with it. Mostly so we can have more evening couch time!” — Glennon Doyle
With that in mind, I finally completed the project at hand. And it was just what I hoped it would be. It was "good enough.”
Perfect is the enemy of done, good enough is our friend. Forge ahead and put that unfinished project to rest, one small step at a time. Do your best and just get the job done. It will be good enough.
