Bent Nails, Self-Belief, and Rethinking ‘Good Enough’

On self-belief

“But how will I know if I’m good enough?” asked squirrel.

“Start by getting rid of good,” replied bear, “then turn that question into a statement.”

“I am enough?” said squirrel.

“Now, we’re getting somewhere,” smiled bear.

…

📷: The Wren

…

Would you know good enough if you saw it?

When I was a kid, my brothers and sisters and I were often “recruited” to help out on woodworking projects with my dad.

When I’d bend a nail or cut a board a little too short, dad was fond of saying, “Good enough for government work.”

This seemed to happen a lot.

Although the seven-year-old me didn’t really understand what he meant, my translation was clear: “You messed up, Mark. You did it wrong. Again.”

As a result, I grew up thinking that *good enough* wasn’t. And neither was I.

The idea that my work – my ability to execute – was never good enough became deeply ingrained.

Fast forward to my 30s. I’m helping my dad build a new fence when I hear him say to himself: “Good enough for government work.”

Looking over, I see a series of nails he’d just hammered in. They were bent all akimbo, bludgeoned in every which direction.

And that’s when I shared with him how I’d been interpreting that saying ever since I was kid.

He told me that his dad used to say the same thing when *he* was a kid. But as a child growing up during World War II, “good enough for government work” literally meant that a project could stand up to the most rigorous of standards.

So, if a bent nail didn’t compromise the integrity of the project as a whole, good enough truly was.

Updating long-held negative self-beliefs takes work. Simply identifying them can be wildly difficult, especially when they’re buried deep within our DNA.

If you were to take an inventory today, can you name a self-belief that may not be in support of who you want to be … and let it go?

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