It’s Better to Do Something Poorly Today Than to Do It Perfectly Never

Recognize when good enough is enough

Photo by timJ on Unsplash

I was guilty of this for years.

Whatever I did, I never thought it was good enough. It always felt like I was missing something. Never complete. I’d tell myself I didn’t have enough information and end up back at the virtual library — studying.

Part of me wanted to perfect the action or behavior in my head before ever putting it out into the real world. Before it could be judged. But as you may have suspected, it was never perfect. I couldn’t even see what perfection looked like.

So I never took action.

Ridiculous, right?

How is anyone supposed to get good without putting in the practice?

There comes a point where good enough is the ideal you strive for. And yes, there is such a thing as too much preparation.

In the past, I was comfortable with the illusion of progress because I was learning through reading, watching, and spectating. I never participated, yet I felt productive even when I didn’t produce. I only consumed.

Without application, knowledge alone doesn’t get you very far.

The gap between learning something and applying it can be as big or as small as you make it. I made it bigger than it should’ve been. You can rationalize why something won’t work in your head, only to find out what you “knew” wasn’t actually true.

The Map is Not the Territory

In other words, your perception of reality is not reality.

It is just your interpretation. You can, however, refine and change the map, add more details and capture more data points. But it will only ever be a map.

And guess what?

Maps are meant to be simple. If they’re too complicated, they’re no longer useful. They become too hard to read. Overstuffed with tiny details, we get distracted and lose sight of what’s important.

So how do you tell if your map is any good?

You use it.