Page 82 - Free Yourself From

Chapter 4

Embracing Good Enough

“Good, better, best . . . Never let it rest . . . Until
your good is better . . . And your better is best!”

Hard as it might be to imagine, that school cheer captures in very
simple terms what I will be talking about in this chapter. It’s just a
little rhyming ditty and very easy to remember. I remember it because
someone wrote it in my autograph book in fourth grade, and it was
probably written in yours as well. Little did those young scribblers
know they were inspiring a sticky floor for those women who are
prone to be overachievers!
Here’s an example of how this sticky floor—ceaseless perfec-
tionism—manifests itself in the office:
Bob, Sarah’s manager, was expecting a report from her on Thurs-
day. On Friday afternoon he didn’t have it yet, and when he asked her
about it, she said she was going to work on it over the weekend. Bob
was dumbfounded. He asked her politely, but with a bit of an edge in
his voice, what the holdup was. Sarah said she just wanted to rework
the charts and rewrite some of the work her team had given her
before he saw it. Bob’s response was, “But I just asked for a draft!”

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