Good Enough

Good morning,

Happy Friday! This morning's tip helps balance out last Friday's pursuit of perfection.

Sometimes "good enough" is good enough.

Yes, shooting for perfection usually gets better results than shooting for good enough. But at the same time, the focus on "getting it right" can lead to paralysis by analysis, so it's important to know when to stop.

Often taking action - even mediocre action - is better than taking no action at all, and inaction frequently results when we self-critically decide that our output isn't good enough.

This is on my mind because a friend recently mentioned he was thinking about my advice when he published a press release he'd been holding onto because it wasn't yet quite right. He quoted back to me, "You always said, something is better than nothing." His press release resulted in a television news interview just a few days later. Yet if he'd waited until the words were perfect, it might not have happened.

Here are two practical questions to help determine if something is "good enough."

1) Do the benefits of releasing a better product later outweigh the benefits of releasing a good enough product now?

2) Am I actually going to make it better later?

If the answer to either question is "no" then don't delay, like Nike says, just do it! You might even be surprised to find yourself at the front of the class because everybody else decided they could do better but never got around to it.

I'd like to delay this sunny note for at least a week to spend lots of time adding profound examples to better illustrate the concept. But since that'll never happen, I'm going to say "good enough" and send it out now - because a little helpful advice is better than none at all. And at the very least I can say...

Have a Sunny Day!

Clarity

P.S. It's often said that half of success is showing up. Woody Allen reminds us that "The other half is showing up on time!"

Clarity Patton Newhouse
Metropolitan Lincoln Mercury
32000 Ford Road
Garden City, MI 48135
www.MetroMichigan.com
313-670-7505