Enough is Enough!
I was in the doctor's office and the doctor asked me. “Have you been exercising?” and I said “no.” and she asked, “why not?” I said, “because I am not able to do exercise for long and 5-10 minutes feels like nothing or not worth the effort.” She dropped the bomb on me and said “well doing nothing is adding up to how much?” OOP I was like point taken. Something is ALWAYS better than nothing.
Therein lies my struggle. I know having chronic conditions can limit how much I can do but it doesn’t limit me from doing something. What I still needed work with was being ok with what I did accomplish. Making what I did do ENOUGH.
That black and white thinking that says if I can’t do it to this level then it’s not worth it. This feels too easy it should be harder or I should be struggling.
Am I the only one? Please let me know in the comments that I’m not alone with this. When is enough enough? Or good enough.
PERFECT IS THE ENEMY OF GOOD
Voltaire says that the enemy of good is trying to make things perfect. Thinking that five minutes of walking wasn’t worth it because it wasn’t 20 or 30 minutes is ridiculous but it was how I reasoned. When in reality little plus little equals a lot and it gets you closer to your goal than trying to wait until I can start at 30 which will never come and no benefits would have been reaped.
It is actually still good enough if all I could do is five minutes a day than zero. I think it’s also hard when you just go for five minutes and then you need like a week of recovery for it. The thief of joy is comparison. Everybody else can do more than five minutes of walking why can’t I? Again even if walking five minutes means I need a week recovery when I keep at it I will grow in stamina and then maybe get to two times during the week of five-minute walking and then less recovery time.
START SMALL.
I just wrote a post about how starting small can overcome the barrier to starting something. I cosign with Brene Brown who says “I am a recovering perfectionist and aspiring good enoughist.”
Gratitude makes what you have enough. I am thankful I have legs, feet and I can walk even if it’s only five minutes. That mindset feels more accepting, more content more at peace.
Look at all the benefits that can come from starting small and making that good enough.
This whole blog post was inspired by the fact that I just started my podcast and my first couple of episodes are too short (i.e like only 5min walk).
I was starting to feel like I shouldn’t upload unless my episodes are longer like that of “most” podcasters (ex of comparison being a thief) who do longer podcasts. Feeling because they are short they don’t have value.
I don’t think of myself as a prideful person but this struggle I had helped me to see how I can work on more humility and modesty. It’s not necessary to do it like other podcasters and not in the beginning. That is like trying to walk before I can crawl. I also learned the way to change that thought or belief is to do the thing I fear and see it not be as bad as I make it out to be in my mind.
So the next time you find yourself wanting to start something but stopping because you don’t feel your small effort will be “good enough”.
Tell yourself it is good enough for where you are right now and that with more practice and consistency you will get to where you are faster than either trying to start too much too fast or not starting at all because you don’t think it’s worth it.
Love is the best motivator for change so bring love and compassion to each change you make. 🦋
