There was a book I read – or atleast listened to when I was working in corporate america called “good to great” — it mostly had alot of details in it that weren’t really applicable to me – its more about leadership style, it did however tell me alot about my leaders, and a frame of reference for accurately assessing them. The title though, always caught my eye.

I’ve strived for most of my life in a state of “good” and worked to make it “great” — had a weird epiphany about this …

Spiderweb that is somewhat appropriate to get back to the epiphany:

P got a new toy – 3D printer. He got it ridiculously cheap a while back by supporting a kickstarter. He and I have an arrangement with kickstarter, that he can pretty much support anything he wants, or feels is viable, because he has had so much success at finding ones that make me happy and our lives better. …. Sous Vide, Ice Maker, …. so many more I can’t even specifically recall – but its kinda a fun feeling having a mystery box arrive with something that you supported months/years ago when the people finally got it done, and it works and its just “so cool” ….

His plan for this weekend was to clear space in the garage to “set up” this new toy. When it got to evening Saturday and he just didn’t have activation energy, I chimed in with my little bit of it, and bolstered him up enough that we went out and made the space. He did the managing, I did the minioning and we got the space cleared enough for him to be satisfied that there was room.

Speed forward to Sunday – he got up early and set the thing up and made his first “endeavor” … Just like most of the projects P works on first, it was something for me. I don’t know why this is always a surprise to me, we have been married for 23 years, and its a consistent thing he does.

My epiphany is about the why behind this – its because he knows that I will nearly always be so so elated about it, and he will feel satisfied that he created something for me, finding validation outside of himself. This isn’t an exclusive feeling to him. I find this as well, I seek/crave validation from the people whose opinion I respect. This is sort of my own personal “good” to “great” — finding it much easier to validate a “great” if it comes from someone else – where I just view it as “good”

My own worst critic, and this also follows through to P, is myself. That internal voice that says: “its not enough” or “you can do better”

This is a time, when everyone is struggling to do “okay” — we are managing, I’m checking in and finding more and more people are honestly able to say “I’m doing okay” — but this seems like it isn’t the time for “great” … so How to take “okay” to “good” … maybe thats the sequel to that book 🙂 — okay no seriously I doubt it.

How do I take okay to “good” — how do I encourage other people to take “okay to good” — I feel pretty confident that once we are all “good” that we will be able to individually start striving again for “great” and that strive is an incredible empowering experience.

There was a scene in Young Sheldon – one of the shows that nearly always has so many feel good moments in it – where Sheldon tried to replicate the state he had under the gas for dental work, and the scientists in his room – many of them dead – tried to express to him that the best part of science isn’t the getting to the answer, its struggling along the journey.

Life is about the journey – this sounds so cliche but there is so much truth in it that its hard to disregard it. Right now, our journeys are stiffled, and restricted – but only the physical ones. The mental, emotional, and spiritual are all free to roam and expand and grow. We just gotta get the activation energy – particular for those of us that spend so much of our growth enjoying the physical – and I’m not talking about working out – just the physical proximity to other humans, and the tactile sense of exploration.

I wonder if that’s something I should explore …. The Physical journey – I bet there are some parallels between my physical explorations … travel, talking to people, exploring new places…. and the physical explorations of the friends I have that love biking, hiking, running, physical exhaustive activities …. maybe that’s how one goes from “good” to “great” in the physical sense…

Its early, and the coffee has just finished, so I’m going to work on striving to make today a “good” to “great” day.