"Good is the enemy of great" is one of the most popular self-improvement expressions there is. It's the first sentence of an international bestselling business book, the title of another self-help book, and a mantra that NFL superstar J.J. Watt has used in press conferences. It sounds appealing and rolls off the tongue nicely, but there's a good chance it's downright wrong.
We're told that striving to be great and never being satisfied are necessary to meet the ever-increasing pressures and pace of today's world. It's the only route to success. But what is it all for? What does success even mean? Rates of clinical anxiety and depression are higher than ever. Some experts believe that loneliness and social isolation have reached epidemic proportions. Two-thirds of all employees report feeling burned out at work. Surely this isn't the kind of success that everyone is after.
Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh offers that true success means feeling content with the unfolding of your life. It is "finding happiness in your work and life, in the here and the now."
The kind of success that Thich Nhat Hanh champions isn't about striving to be great all the time. It's about being at least OK with where you are, about accepting good enough. What's interesting is that not always trying so damn hard to be great isn't just the path to being happier; it's also the path to getting better.
This mindset improves confidence and releases pressure because you don't always feel like you're coming up short. It also lessens the risk of injury-emotional and physical-since there isn't a perceived need to put forth heroic efforts every day. The result is more consistent performance that compounds over time. Research shows that sustainable progress, in everything from diet to fitness to creativity, isn't about being consistently great; it's about being great at being consistent. It's about being good enough over and over again.
A wonderful case study is Eliud Kipchoge, who just shattered the marathon world record. He's literally the best in the world at what he does. Yet Kipchoge says that the key to his success is not overextending himself in training. He's not fanatical about trying to be great all the time. Instead, he has an unwavering dedication to being good enough. He recently told The New York Times that he rarely, if ever, pushes himself past 80 per cent-90 per cent at most-of his maximum effort during workouts. This allows Kipchoge to string together weeks and weeks of consistent training. "I want to run with a relaxed mind," he says.
Unlike so many other runners who have tried and failed to break the world marathon record, Kipchoge has never been obsessed with the mark. Prior to his record-setting race, when asked about his mindset, he told The Times, "To be precise, I am just going to try to run my personal best. If it comes as a world record, I would appreciate it. But I would treat it as a personal best." Kipchoge puts running in its place, which, for him, is in the here and now, not in striving to meet ever increasing expectations. “When I run,” he says, "I feel good. My mind feels good. I sleep in a freeway, and I enjoy life."
It's a paradox. A good-enough mindset might very well be the key to being great and happy. The less you want to be happy, the happier you'll be. The less you need to perform better, the better you'll perform. Just think about your own life. During the times you were happiest and performed best, were you striving? Were you chasing after something? Or were you more like Kipchoge-grounded, at peace, and feeling good enough with what was in front of you? This doesn't mean you should never desire productive change or improvement. Quite the opposite. Though they may run counter to so much of the current ethos, adopting the following core principles of good enough is likely the best route to being happier and getting better.
Select the most appropriate synonym of the word depression stated in para 2 of the given passage.