Hundreds of books have been written on the topic of procrastination. You can sum up their solutions to; do it now, have a to-do and have done list, remove all distractions and so on.
For this article, let us explore the second most common enemy of great work - "this is good enough already."
When we are the customer, we expect first rate service or top notch quality. Why is it that when we are the service providers, we often try to just pass a good enough work? The level of service quality we expect from others is much higher than the level of service quality we prove. It is clearly a double standard.
My career spans over twenty years. One thing very common with people who rapidly rise up in their careers is that they take pride in the quality of their work or service. Good enough is never good enough for these high flyers. They maintain a high level of standard for their work. They expect the highest level of standard from their teams work, output, product, service.
Good enough should never be good enough. If we want others to respect us and our work then we should do our jobs to the best of our ability. Sometimes our best may not be good enough but nobody can fault us for lack of trying.
This is one glaring trait I see all around me in the Philippines. It's sad but there are more people who just want to pass a good enough job than do a great one. It's so prevalent that we even have a phase coined for it "pwede na".
Going back to my previous article on the ASEAN integration. Ten countries One economy. A number of the best companies from the nine other countries will come over and compete for our markets. These ASEAN companies grew from a culture of excellence and taking pride in their work. These ASEAN companies are using best practice management and quality techniques.
Our consumers will not care from which country the company is providing them the best service. They expect the best service and will gravitate to the best companies providing the needed service or product. It is simply arrogance to think that our customers will not jump ship to the best providers from abroad.
Not to sound too preachy but even our faith expects the best from us. Simply put, God made us in his image. God is excellent therefore we are expected to be excellent and do excellent work. Our work glorifies God. Correction, excellent work glorifies God who provided our skills, talents and opportunities. Sloppy work does not glorify God.
Good enough is not and will never be good enough. Let's do great work.