Good Enough
Your colleague says: “You did an okay job with last week’s presentation.”
Your mother-in-law says: “Your house is clean enough but could use some attention to detail.”
Your partner says: “The meal you made tonight? It was alright.”
You tell yourself: “Parenting—hmmm…why can’t I get it together (seems like everyone else can)?”
Your supervisor says: “Job performance? Yep, you are meeting expectations.”
What do these statements bring out in you? Pride and satisfaction? Or, are you like me and recognize that there are some feelings of disappointment and guilt that, if you heard any of these statements, would be there if you were really being honest with yourself? I think it is safe to say, that striving for mediocrity is not on many people’s list of lifetime goals.
The truth is that there is such a drive in today’s culture to ‘have it all and have it all at once.’ We walk around believing and telling ourselves that we are “less than” if we don’t measure up to this impossible standard—to have everything in order, perfectly, all the time. Some personality styles adhere to this more than others, but I think that it is pretty clear that we are all affected in some way or another by unrealistic expectations…that others have of us or that we have of ourselves.
