The Good Enough Years
When our children were little, I always thought if I wrote a parenting book about those preschool years, I’d call it The Good Enough Years. I washed their face and now it was once again smeared with peanut butter. Good enough. We walked out the door with clothes on, not cute, adorable matching clothes, but clothes. Good enough.
As my family has entered the teen and high school years, and as my husband and my career has launched us to new levels of crazy, I’ve realized the Good Enough Years have expanded beyond preschool to be all of my life.
There’s Freedom in Good Enough
There’s a level of freedom to the Good Enough concept. As we enter the holidays next week, how many of us accomplished all we wanted to for our family celebrations, or in getting things done at work before the end of the year, or in making the massive change we hoped for in 2019?
I’m not advocating giving up on goals or dreams, but I am suggesting there’s freedom in realizing that making progress towards those dreams, while keeping the focus on what matters, really is good enough.
For example, in my work, I had hoped to have my CEO peer advisory group up and running by the end of 2019. Reality is, I’ve made great progress toward making this happen, but I realized that the end of 2019 wasn’t realistic. February 2020 is realistic. So I’ve switched my thoughts to, “Wow, look at how much progress I’ve made. It’s not where I thought I’d be, but this definitely good enough for this point in time.”
It’s been a stress reliever and a margin provider to say good enough in my work. It’s the same with my home life. The floor is sticky today, but tomorrow it will not be. That’s good enough. We are eating off lovely paper plates for the holiday. That’s good enough.
What Really Matters
When I remind myself that the current thing I’m stressing over is already good enough, I focus on what matters. I focus on relationships and family and things that I will look back on at the end of my life and say, “Many things were good enough, but what mattered was WONDERFUL.”
To each of you, happiest of holidays as you focus on what really matters and let the rest be Good enough!
P.S. To clarify, I’ve talked with friends about the Good Enough Years since my kids were little. This shouldn’t be confused with the amazing work a colleague and friend of mine around an amazing book, program and keynote around content on Good Enough Now (click to watch her video – she’s fantastic!).
Vistage chair, keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant, Sarah Gibson, helps organizations leverage the power of communication, teamwork, and diversity to improve engagement and transform teams.
If you are a CEO or know a CEO who would benefit from a peer advisory group, please contact Sarah at Sarah.Gibson@Vistage.com. To inquire about her speaking programs, please visit www.sarahjgibson.com.
