First, Aim For "Good Enough"
“If people knew how hard I had worked to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem impressive at all.” - Michelangelo
What is the most destructive force in the world? Pride? Selfishness? Ignorance? The jury’s still out on this one. Is it unreasonable to suggest that it could be self-doubt?
Consider for a moment what sort of world we’d be living in if no one had ever allowed themselves to be held back by imaginary limitations. If the human mind wasn’t so powerful at convincing itself that something cannot be done, we might have already cured cancer, environmental pollution, traffic, and a thousand other problems the world is suffering from.
Every person you’ve ever met has at some point let self-doubt keep them from reaching their potential - and you have too. There’s a decent likelihood you’re even letting self-doubt hold you back at this very minute, whether you’re willing to admit it or not. You shouldn’t be ashamed that your mind causes you to doubt your own ability; what you should feel bad about, though, is letting that doubt win. You’ll never know the depths of your own potential until you set out to measure it.
There is a common denominator amongst every person who’s ever achieved something great. Every single one of them refused to listen to the voice inside that told them success was impossible. Everyone has had a ‘day one’. Every professional athlete was once the newest player on the field; every musician at one point hadn’t yet picked up their instrument for the first time. No one was born knowing their potential, but a few in a generation work up the courage to find it.
“Good enough” has a bad connotation for a reason: it typically refers to a stopping point. In the last couple of weeks of college, you’re perfectly satisfied turning in homework that’s “good enough”. In contrast, though, “good enough” is a worthwhile goal as one step in the journey toward excellence in anything. At some point, Picasso reached a point of “good enough” - but that was only a landmark on the way to artistic greatness. The same with Da Vinci, Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, and every other master who has ever lived. “Good enough” was, for each of them, the very first target they would aim for as novices, and eventually they pushed past this to the apex of their craft. They never could have become masters without first being beginners, and it’s doubtless their first (and second, and probably hundredth) attempt was quite awful.
We become known for our results, not for our first tries. We must first crawl, and then walk, before we can run.
One of the best rules to charge ourselves with is “Do not let the desire for perfection delay your start.” In whatever you aspire to, at some point you’ll feel the gravity of self-doubt; you’ll worry that your friends and coworkers will see your early work and think less of you. You’ll wish you could just be perfect right away, just like someone you admire who seems to have honed their craft effortlessly. But it’s necessary to recognize that whoever you admire once felt the same lack of confidence, and they did what you must do: recognize that you are your own harshest critic, and find confidence in the fact that your first step is the necessary beginning on the path to greatness.
Resolve to never again allow your own fear of failure keep you from pursuing your highest dreams.