Radical adequacy
The other day I was marveling at how bad a dog is at playing catch.
He was comically bad at catching the ball. I kept tossing the ball and it would whack him in the face and bounce off. Or he'd jump up and totally miss it.
But the thing is, this dog lives to play ball. He is obsessed with the ball and is nudging the ball into my hand just about every waking moment.
It made me wonder how many things I've enjoyed but stopped doing, just because I'm not good at it. Maybe it's okay to keep doing something I suck at, just because it's fun.
Then The Whippet mentioned the idea of radical adequacy. In a world where we're inundated with the idea that we should be optimizing everything, constantly improving, and being The Best, it's easy to forget that good enough is good enough.
You don't have to be great at most things. Or anything, really. You just have to be good enough. And I bet you're good enough at just about everything you need to do.
PS. Here's a nice reminder that there are plenty of things that we can't do anything about. It's okay to let go.
Sometimes I hear people who are upset that their spouse isn't worried or scared or upset about something that they're upset or scared or worried about. And I get it, because we want to be validated and feel heard. But also, being worried or scared or upset just makes it harder to get through things.
It's okay to let go and accept that something is out of your hands. It doesn't mean you don't care or don't wish you had the power to change things.