And above all things, never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you at your own reckoning.
Isaac Asimov

:Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.
George Eliot

Perception and choice significantly influences the quality of life we experience - i.e., we set the course we follow by how we interpret and react to what we perceive the situations we encounter demands.
Samurai ponderings

         Deciding what is good "enough" and then sticking to it is a very underrated virtue. How much of the pressure, the busyness, the competition, the unhappiness, and the inability to see the possibilities in ourselves results from our failure to practice this discipline?

         People working on an assembly line establish goals for "productivity." The workers finally meet those goals but then find that it is not enough—that the standards have been raised. You open a store, hoping that sales might reach half a million dollars some day. That goal is met, but it is no longer enough. A lawyer or accountant puts in extra hours on a big case, only to find three more jobs added to his or her load.

         We need to build into our days ways of reminding ourselves of what is enough along with strategies for sticking to our decisions. Consider it a spiritual discipline for the workplace. Just like the contemplative spiritual disciplines like meditation, bible reading and prayer, how about disciplines for the spirituality of our work, of our living. How about learning to say "enough" and learning to live with imperfection.

         I pondered this about a month ago, when here in our Community, we wore badges of honor to take pride in 'Three Stars is Average." Three stars meant that what we wrote was read with some pleasure by our peers and likely offered some encouraging critique. So what's wrong with that ~ Nothing!

         Take a look around ~ your home, your image, your friends, family, and yes, your writing. It may not be what the fairy tales incite, or what fantasy films offer, but there are successes and joys each day. By living each day, accepting the failures (which are evidence of having tried one path, and having failed that path, finding another to take), and successes, don't you see that you're good enough?

         With your writing, as with other tasks you undertake, consider the following and decide what's good enough for you ~

         When is the Effort and Success (or Failure) Enough?

         We must decide for ourselves, just how much effort on a particular project is enough, and part of that decision is based on the amount of success we aspire to or the amount of failure we will tolerate. We make this decision daily, whether we notice or not, with respect to finances, and time spent at work or on daily chores. Use the same premise when you submit a story or poem to a contest and it's not a winner, or is returned unaccepted, decide if you need to revise, resubmit, or let it go for awhile as other projects beckon.

         The question then becomes, how much success (or failure) is enough? When is it time to let the project go, set it aside and continue working on other projects, or start something new, or take a course to develop skills, or take a walk, or a drive in the countryside. Whatever your decision at the moment, the fact that you try, and acknowledge setbacks, think of ways to change your path, or accept the setbacks and find another path, it's good enough because you've made a decision ~ you've engaged the matter and made a choice.

         Sometimes we beat our heads against a wall to accomplish something when the only truly spiritual decision is to say that we have put in enough effort and that we will just have to live with the success we have achieved. There is a spiritual side to this seeming failure. We can fall back on the notion that it is not by our efforts alone that we succeed, that there's a God or Goddess with a part in all our work, and that failure and incompleteness are part of the human condition.

         Enough has both negative and positive connotations. The negative meaning comes out in a phrase such as "not the best, but good enough." Here the word implies setting a limitation that prevents us from attaining our highest goal. It suggests settling for an easier, less demanding way that doesn't bring out our full capabilities. The other meaning is very different. Here the word points to the golden mean between two extremes.

         "Enough" in this context signifies the ideal balance between "too much" and "too little."

         Whenever you decide that you have not spent enough time or effort on a project, ask yourself what will be "enough." Write that down and stick to it.

         Try this ~ Make a list of your "greatest failures"—those goals you did not accomplish - that later turned out to be not so important. Keep the list posted in your workplace and add to it regularly.

         Perfection is an overrated illusion. The idea that our work can be perfect is, on the face of it, absurd. Part of the very nature of humanity is our imperfection. On the few occasions that a man or woman achieves perfection, we call it genius and the accomplishment a masterpiece. But for most people most of the time, our work will be less than perfect—less, even, than what we are capable in our best moments.

         Does its inherent imperfection make our work less spiritual? Not necessarily. If we accept imperfection as part of the human condition, then we should be able to celebrate our failures as well as our successes. In fact, the opposite of this discipline is a sin called "perfectionism." Out of our egotism and insecurity, we try to do the impossible ~ to be perfect ~ with the predictable result that we make a mess of the very work we are trying to accomplish, we drive our friends and family crazy, and we harm our spiritual life in the process. Imperfection is a condition of growth ~ we push farther, aim higher, and learn from our setbacks along the way.

         And, we need to accept the limitations in others as well. Embrace their desire for growth, encourage their aspirations, and console them when they falter that they continue to strive while accepting that they are good enough to do so.

         So, I am good enough ~ and I'm glad of it! You each are good enough, and I'm glad of that as well!

So write on!
Kate

Kate - Writing & Reading