In reflecting on my self-described Season of Failure, one thing I learned was the power of half-assing it. I’m not suggesting that we should go through life giving things only half our effort and energy, but there are times when half-assing it is better than no…well, you get the idea.
A few months ago I need to start something. It was one of those projects that feels like so much and not enough at the same time, and no part of it had to be done *right now*. I was overwhelmed with possibility but underwhelmed with the tasks at hand. And, of course, I wanted perfection.
You can see this is already set up for failure but, at the time, I thought my biggest problem was finding the right time on my calendar to devote to the project. I wanted the perfect and consistent window of time, and if I couldn’t get perfection, I wouldn’t even bother starting. In retrospect, this was a form of procrastination, but at the time it felt like a real struggle. I would ask myself, “how could I possibly work on this very important project with scattered times and changing energy.” I figured it would be better to not even start if I couldn’t give it my all.
After some awesome coaching by a colleague, I decided to “eat the frog”. This is a quote I heard years ago and is often attributed to Mark Twain – and, let me be clear, one that I have twisted into my own new meaning. To me, eating the frog means, do the thing in front of you – even if it’s the most dreaded, least exciting thing. And you just do it, you don’t wait for perfection, you don’t wait for lightning in a bottle, you just freaking do it. To me, that’s eating the frog – a less appetizing take on Nike’s motto.
So, I did it, when there were openings in my calendar, when my energy was low, when it actually was the perfect time, when I’d rather not – I just did it. I didn’t always do it well, but I did it consistently. The first few days were rough, getting into the rhythm just to have to stop for something already scheduled or not feeling in it, but knowing I had to do something. But as I continued, perfection mattered less and less and I started to get into my groove and find something exciting to work on every day, even when the actual tasks were not exciting. The big picture became clearer which made the day-to-day more meaningful and manageable.
A famous quote of James Clear’s is, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” That’s what I had been missing, I wanted to see the finish line before I even began the race when, in reality, the important part was that I started the race.
Going forward, I want to ask myself the following questions:
- Is this a legit reason to hold off, or is this just an excuse?
- When is it ok to let go of perfection and when is “perfection” actually needed?
- How much do I need to get started?
- What’s the frog that I need to eat?
The biggest lesson I learned is that it’s ok to sometimes half-ass it, as long as you do it consistently. To quote James Clear again, “The days can be easy if the years are consistent. You can write a book or get in shape or code a piece of software in 30 minutes per day. But the key is you can’t miss a bunch of days.”
Inquiry: What’s the frog you need to eat to get started?
