Work In Colour - Work. Think. Live. In Colour
Tuesday 20th October 2009 | 6 comments
Last month I painted our backyard. (OK, if truth be told, I hired some guys to paint our backyard...) Choosing the colour was tricky and I'd put the whole thing off twice because I couldn't decide. Finally I found it, a washed-out pale verdigris, aqua, dirty green colour. All was well.
Except that on the wall it turned into a very strange neon baby blue...
The painter assured me another coat would fix it, so that's what we did. All was well.
Except that the next morning I woke up and knew it was still wrong. I spent all day convincing myself it was OK, but deep inside was a little voice telling me it had to be re-done. Hard (and expensive), but I had to get it right, so I went to a different paint company and chose another, greener, paint. The painters came back and did it all again. All was well.
Except that it still didn't match the (perfect) colour in my mind. I spent all that day convincing myself it was OK, and this time I realised it actually was OK. Not perfect, but certainly good enough.
And that's the key - our work, especially creative work, will never be perfect, it just has to be 'good enough'. I discovered this concept as a young mother, and it saved my life - if you think choosing paint is an imperfect art, try parenting!
How does all this relate to careers and business?
I think there are 3 kinds of finished work - not yet good enough, good enough and really really good.
'Not yet good enough' speaks for itself - like that first paint colour I chose, you just know it needs more work, that it can't be allowed to stay the way it is. You may resist at first, but you know you won't be satisfied til you redo it, til you have that conversation with the client, til you spend a few hours doing more research or whatever. Easy.
It's the distinction between 'good enough' and 'really really good' that causes the most grief and confusion.
Sometime things do have to be really really good, even if it takes blood and sweat and, almost certainly, tears. That big pitch, that first article for the major newspaper, the career-changing presentation or interview, all are worth whatever it takes. Before I did my first major keynote, I rehearsed the whole 45-minute talk in full, 8 times, after I had spent maybe 15 hours putting it together. It was what I needed to do to have it at the right level, and it was worth it.
But many of us get caught up in the perfection trap: 'Everything I do has to be perfect, and if it can't be perfect, I can't do it at all'. Sound familiar? Well, it may be familiar, but it's rubbish.
Much of what we do is just fine at the 'good enough' level. Recently I was asked to do a 10-minute spiel at a client's conference for their hotel managers. I didn't have a huge amount of time to prepare, so I threw together some slides, organised my thoughts and off I went. It was less polished than I usually do, but it served its purpose - and I realised later, a really slick performance would have been over-the-top and struck the wrong tone for the event.
I also agonise sometimes over small details that no-one will ever notice - yes, it would be nice to get it all completely perfect, but in a business or workplace scenario, if it takes you 7 hours to do the first 90%, is it worth spending another 2 hours to fine-tune the bits that are not essential to your message or its impact? Probably not.
(I'm not talking about checking facts or removing typos here - inaccuracies or really sloppy presentation are never good enough, never...)
The other way this often plays out is to postpone a new project or product or piece of writing because 'I am not good enough...yet'. There is a great book by Western Buddhist nun Pema Chodron called Start Where You Are, which talks about doing your best from wherever you are right now. I look back at my early writing, at my first website or my memories of my early workshops, and yes, things have moved on a long way since then. But if I hadn't started there, I would never have reached where I am today.
I fully expect it will be the same looking back in another 5 years. We build on our work every day and it should get better and better over time. Today's 'good enough' is not necessarily going to be good enough in 5 years, but it's just fine right now.
So, is your work good enough?
Tags: thinking, creativity, tips
Another ripper, Joanna. All I need now for complete happiness is a photo series showing the before, during, after (and after) of your back yard!
I'm a chronic perfectionist. If I followed your advice, I'd produce three times as much stuff and it'd all be good enough.
I think your words are wise and I'm going to try to follow them. Many thanks! P. :)
Well, I said the paint was 'good enough' but the plants are not...yet. Most of them are still at the plant shop waiting for me to choose them!
Great article. A simple reminder about the performance killer of many highly creative and productive people.
.... perfection.... it took me 80 hr to put together my PhD proposal, the ppt presentation. Overkill...in every respect, or so it seemed. But when I entered the lecture theatre with a selection of the university academia, I got so nervous that every single bit of streamlined perfection paid off. I had a smooth run, though I was trembling like a grass in the wind. Our inner voice will tell us what degree of perfection is needed....right?
Cheers
Astrid McCormick
Thanks Astrid, and yes, I think it's that little voice every time - the one that said 'more practice' to you, and the one that said 'that colour is wrong' to me. Of course the black art here is learning to distinguish between inner knowing and inner neurosis! I have got MUCH better at that over the years, but it does take practice. I reckon you start with small stuff - and check in with yourself frequently: 'Is this good enough for its purpose?'
Joanna
I like the word neurosis in this... :)
Knowing ourselves...the key