‘Enough’ can be a loaded word, associated with fears of not doing enough or being enough, a striving to cross a mystical benchmark of acceptability that is hard to pin down and seems to continually drift beyond reach no matter what we do. Even the affirming mantra of ‘I am enough’ seems a bit… well… stingy. Like we just scraped it in.
If I said “just give it seventy percent, that’ll be enough” it sounds like I’m asking you to lower your standards, take short cuts or compromise. And it sounds underwhelming in a society full of messages to be our best and maximise our potential.
But we can look at it a different way. What if we worked on lifting our seventy percent performance rather try to push ourselves to hit peak performance as often as possible? We can intentionally improve our skills and processes so they’re still solid when we don’t have our ideal level of energy or focus available.
When our seventy percent performance is genuinely, absolutely, good enough we have more room for the messiness of reality on the OK-ish days and the for-whatever-reason not good days. We can burn less energy on self-criticism or self-doubt. We might leave more in the tank for other parts of our lives and loves. And anything above seventy percent can become a source of satisfaction or delight, a delicious moment to savour rather than relentlessly pursue.
Helen Mentha 