“Perfection is the enemy of good.” -Voltaire
That is a mantra that I adopted several years ago when I committed myself to becoming a finisher after a lifetime of being a starter. I wanted to change myself in a way that focused on completing tasks because for the majority of my adult life I had failed at that.
Part of my guidance toward making that improvement came from Jon Acuff and his book “Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done” that taught me to see completion as a worthy benchmark for success. That probably seems intuitive to many people, but it was not for me. For years, I struggled with finishing projects I started simply because I lost enthusiasm for them.
Through much reflection and some guidance, I came to realize that I was abandoning projects once I lost the element of perfection. Meaning, once I felt like the project was not going to be the best or the opportunity for perfection was lost, I abandoned the work and sought a new fresh start.
What does all that have to do with farming? It’s related because it is the mindset I bring to farming, and it is how I know that this is not a passing fad in my life. The mindset that I have about growing things is that it will not be perfect, but that’s okay because it is better to have grown good food than to have abandoned crops because they were not perfect. I’m a new farmer, and I will live in the shadow of my own need to learn more for the rest of my life. I may never see perfection in the crops I harvest, but that is no reason to not try for good.
I think this personal philosophy pairs well with the other byproduct of my life’s experiences, which is my decisive nature. I have made good and bad decisions, but the one constant is that I am always willing to make a decision. My ability to be decisive does not come from a tremendous confidence that I’m right or that I have all the answers; it comes from my willingness to accept that choice is just the beginning of the journey. The doing is what really determines the outcome.
“Cause every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser”. Kenny Rogers from The Gambler.
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