Being “Good Enough” is not Good Enough If You Want To Enjoy Life’s Journey.
Stagnation in life is all too common. We buy into the idea that all we need do is get educated, get a job, find a life partner, have a family and life will be great. The reality of course is not that simple.
We humans have a natural ability to stagnate, to find our comfort zone and stay there. We don’t like change. It’s built in. That’s why moving house or changing jobs is so stressful. These changes involve us moving outside what we perceive to be comfortable and there is a fear of the unknown. Will the neighbourhood be safe? Will I be able to do my new job? Our instincts fight these changes and even though our house might be too small for our growing family or we hate our jobs, we find ourselves reluctant to change.
But life doesn’t make it easy to stay comfortable. Life makes it hard. It knocks you about, it pushes you down and it changes the environment around you. It might feel at times life is against you, always trying to make you change. Of course, that’s not what it’s about. Life is testing you, pushing you, forcing you to improve and grow. Imagine a child, after falling down when trying to walk for the first time just giving up. It would never learn to walk. Children get up and keep trying until they walk unaided. They get stronger and stronger until walking becomes the natural way to get from point A to point B. If we want to move around our environment unaided, we have to be able to walk.
But here lays the problem. Once we get to a point where we are ‘good enough’ we stop trying to improve. We do this in so many areas of our life. When we learn to drive we develop the ability to drive and once we pass the test, we stop trying to improve. We can drive a car. That’s good enough, and for the most part that is probably quite true. The problem is we also become just good enough girlfriends and boyfriends, just good enough mothers and fathers and just good enough taxi drivers, salespeople and doctors. We live lives of being “just good enough”.
I would suggest this is not good enough. We should not be striving to be just good enough. We should be striving to improve. To be a better person each day. Imagine the motivation you would have if you woke up each morning with a purpose to improve an area of your life. It could be “today I am going to be the best daughter I can be” and your focus for the day is your parents. You go visit them, take them out for afternoon tea at a beautiful riverside cafe and find out how they are really doing. Or you could decide today you are going to be a great colleague to your coworkers and go into your work and help out your colleagues in a way you have never done before.
When you strive to improve small areas of your life every day, you soon find your whole life starts to improve. When you feel you are improving every day, you start to feel happier, more energetic and have more purpose in life. Waking up in the morning gets easier, your thinking becomes clearer and you sleep better. All these little improvements are moving you outside your comfort zone and all these little improvements very soon add up to large improvements in your career prospects, your relationships with the people you care about and in the way you live your life.
Life should never be about being ‘just good enough’. Life should be about exploring the possibilities we all have to make a positive change in the world around us. Being just good enough is conforming to what society says is okay. But that is not how great lives are lived. Great lives are lived by pushing beyond comfort zones, by always seeking ways to improve. It is about setting goals and each day discovering new ways to achieve those goals by making improvements in our lives.
Making improvements in your life does not mean making extreme or radicle changes. Improvements are made by little steps. Things like getting off the bus one stop earlier and walking into work, or greeting everyone you meet on a Monday morning with a positive “good morning!” instead of a negative “morning”. It means making the commitment not to eat chocolate for a week, or spending an extra hour each day playing with your children. These little changes can make a huge impact on your life and the lives of the people around you in such positive ways. Very soon these changes become your normal behaviour and your comfort zone changes. Then you make further changes and become even better. Life is never about the destination, after all, we all share the same destination: death. Life is always about the journey and the experiences and achievements we have on that journey.
Over time these changes and this commitment to continuous improvement start to reward you in such positive ways. Your relationships improve, you start to enjoy your work, you feel more energetic, more positive about life and this just leads you to make further improvements to your life. It’s a great way to live and one I highly recommend you try.
Being just good enough is not good enough. Being a better human being each day is what life is all about and you can start today. What can you improve about yourself that will have a positive impact on your life and those around you today?
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