(Volume 1, Issue 10)
Topic of the week: Progress, expectations and perfection
High performers often struggle with the emotional toll of perfection. Exceptional performers are comfortable with being good enough, letting go of expectations to give space to change. Warren Buffett has said on several occasions, "The secret to happiness is low expectations." Lawrence Yeo expands on his experience with perfection in writing, and a visual framework (below) to see how perfection can be the enemy of progress.
Good Enough is the sweet spot. Being able to let go at Good Enough is the way to start something else that will further progress.
Quote of the week
"An investment in knowledge pays dividends." - Benjamin Franklin
Three recent articles
1. 2020 Templeton Prize winner and NIH Director, Dr. Francis Collins, is interviewed by NY Magazine and gives his scientific and theological assessment of today's pandemic environment, how it is important to moderate American individualism, and how optimistic he is about balancing world views of objective science and subjective morality.
2. Evolutionary biology reinforces the concept that there are no permanent advantages, and to stay alive everything needs to continuously adapt or go extinct. In "Keep Running!" Morgan Housel writes how this concept applies to anything.
3. Everyone has their own version of confidence, writes Steven Handel. "Acceptance and rejection are two sides of the same coin. You'll have to be comfortable with both if you want to develop true inner confidence and self-esteem." Equanimity with judgment of others (acceptance or rejection) begins with owning who you are. Handel says, when in this mindset one has effortless, quiet confidence, an attractive and magnetic quality.