Minimum

One of my all time favorite movies is Better than Chocolate.

The mom of the main character mentions to her new friend (Judy) that she sang in college. She stopped once she realized she would never be the best. Her friend, who is a singer in a club, laughed and said that if that was the requirement, she would never sing a note. Her criteria was that she sang well enough to suit herself. It helped that that was good enough to suit her audiences as well.

For some weird reason, as a teenager I had it in my head that I should be good at something when I first tried it. What a shame. I’ve yet to find anything worth knowing that I perfected on my first try. I definitely wasn’t a natural dancer: Ask Kurt! My definition of success in archery had to be revised from hitting to a bullseye to simply hitting the target. Canning is simply following instructions, but I’ve still had some fails. And cheese making was far from as easy as the website implied. I am not and will never be the best at most things. I do, however, find great enjoyment in those activities and many others, and it is all because I took the time to get good enough at them to satisfy myself.

A couple of years out of college I had a tshirt that said, “The minimum would not be the minimum if it wasn’t good enough.” I loved that shirt. It was years before I took that lesson to heart. I’m so glad I have that as part of my mindset now.

What activities do you do well enough to suit yourself?