Have you ever felt like an impostor? I know I have. I first learned of the phenomenon called “Impostor Syndrome” shortly after I’d confirmed my enrollment at Penn. A classmate had decided on Stanford, and her and I would often … Continue reading
When I first started blogging, I thought I was Socrates. Whether or not I wanted to admit it, I felt like I had some sort of deep wisdom to share with the world. I began constructing posts that I thought … Continue reading
Thomas Edison once said, “I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” When I applied to colleges, I wanted to get into as many as possible. More acceptances = more options = better. That was my thinking. … Continue reading
I am the worst person to go to the gym with, my sister says. No matter what I’ve done during my workout, as we’re leaving the gym, I’m complaining. I could have done another rep, I say. I could have ran five more minutes. I didn’t really need to take a water break. I end my whine session with saying, today’s workout wasn’t all that great. And true to character, my sister looks at me and rolls her eyes. At least you went, she says. That’s good enough.
What is “good enough?” It seems as if it’s a state, not a goal. “Good enough” is often not what we strive toward, but where we end up in pursuit of the goal. Most people frame “good enough” as a cop-out, a negative. “Good enough” is what we say when we don’t really want to put any more work in, or we don’t particularly care about the goal.
The truth is that while we think of “good enough” as a bother keeping us from pursuing our goals, all of us would be dead if it weren’t for that little phrase. There are areas of our lives where we can’t physically spare the time to put in our 100%. Me putting in my 100% on my Statistics class would mean that I literally wouldn’t sleep. Ever.
There are also times in our lives where we won’t be able to put in the 100% because it’s just not going to happen. We’re sad, we’re tired, we lack focus. Some days our “best” is going to be 85%, and that’s it.
While making “good enough” the norm isn’t anything to live by, it gives us room to have some days that suck. It allows us to admit that there are constraints on our 100%. I don’t have the time to give my absolute 100%, work-out-until-I-pass-out effort every day at the gym, nor do I really wish to work out until I physically pass out (because wouldn’t that technically be 100%?). If I held myself to some high standard of “I’m ALWAYS going to give my 100%,” I would probably never go to the gym at all.
In pursuit of our goals, it’s the cliche to say that we plan on “giving our all.” But in order to operate in the real world and to avoid getting discouraged, sometimes we have to perform at a level that is “good enough.” We have to allow ourselves to have less-than-stellar days and to accept that an effort which was not so hot is still progress compared to no effort made at all.
At the end of the day, “good enough” still has “good” in it. And that’s “good enough” for me.
*Inspired by a wordpress prompt about obstacles that get in our way of accomplishing what we’d like to do.
Other bloggers’ takes on the subject:
Sunday night was the Grammy’s, as you probably know. In my opinion, a Facebook friend put it best when she said, “Who invited all of these people to Beyonce’s award show?” Beyonce and Jay-Z obviously stole the show with their dramatic performance of “Drunk in Love.”
As I watched Beyonce look super hot on stage in her un-clothes, I couldn’t help but think a bit about Beyonce and what an interesting case study she makes in the area of female empowerment. Beyonce has said multiple times that she is all for making women feel empowered and beautiful about themselves, and this is clear through her music, especially her new song “Flawless.” Yet her clothing choices and racy music videos could suggest that she has submitted herself to the sexualization of women that has become so prevalent today. So what should we make of this?
First, let’s be honest here: if I had Beyonce’s body, I probably wouldn’t ever wear clothes, so props to her for even covering it up at all. But all sass aside, I think she poses an interesting challenge to many people’s traditional notions of female empowerment.
The issue of women’s modesty has been long contested, it seems. Most people fall into two camps. One believes that modesty is empowering because it allows a woman to own her body and share it with whom she wishes instead of being pressured to share it with anyone and everyone. This group then believes that immodesty is degrading to the woman, that it limits her, makes her lesser.
The other group views the option to wear less modest clothing as empowering, as a step toward shaking off the chains of sexual oppression. This group views immodesty (with no negative undertone) as a symbol of equality, that women may wear what they’d like and expose what they’d like in the same way that men can without the stigma of being “promiscuous” or “inappropriate.”
Coming back to Beyonce, I personally find her interesting because she has managed to be both powerful and sexual. She is generally well-respected in the music world as an entertainer and singer, while still dressing more provocatively than most of us would in our own houses (and looking about a hundred times better doing it).
I find it to be a “tree in the woods” sort of question. If you’re a sexual object of sorts (she has to be, as she’s like wearing no clothes), but you know you are, are you really? That is, if you have embraced your sexuality without letting it define you, you’ve controlled it instead of letting it control you, are you allowing yourself to be sexualized or are you just expressing yourself as a female?
It’s an interesting issue, and I’d love to hear your opinions. Meanwhile, I’ll be singing “Drunk in Love” at top volume….and trying to be cuter than this kid.
Pinstripes&Lipgloss 