A job worth doing

A job worth doing is worth doing badly.

A job worth doing is worth doing half-assed.

Better finished than perfect.

Variations on a mantra that has genuinely improved my life beyond words. I came across it first as a screenshot of what I assume was a Reddit post (update: It was a Tumblr post):

And then my husband pointed out a really great quote in a book he was reading at the time —

It seems that when we hear someone say things are getting better, we think they are also saying “don’t worry, relax” or even “look away.” But when I say things are getting better, I am not saying those things at all. I am certainly not advocating looking away from the terrible problems in the world. I am saying that things can be both bad and better.

Hans Rosling, “Factfulness”

So, now, I’m quite happy if I can do something, ANYTHING that is an improvement. Even if it’s small, even if it’s not perfect, even if I’ve still left so much un-done. Because doing only half the dishes means the dirty dish pile is still bad, but it’s better; and I have fewer dishes to wash later.

I realise that it’s why I’ve really embraced the Agile way of life, as I mentioned in a previous blog post — because I’m iteratively improving my life. I definitely don’t have my sh*t together, but I’m handling life a lot better now than I was before I learned to accept that “yeah, I may not have done everything I wanted to get done today, but I’ve done more than nothing!”