I’ve heard several different people say something similar recently. It’s something which I think is a good life truth. Here are the quotes:
- “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” Chesterton
- “Some is better than none.” Icon for Hire
- “Perfect is the enemy of the good.” Voltaire
I know for myself, I want to do something great if I do it at all. I’ve recently wondered if this is part of the reason I’ve found success in writing but not in music as I had hoped. I had lofty ideas and inspirations for what I would like to do musically. Starting out, I couldn’t even get close, so I got stuck and frustrated and didn’t make much progress. With writing however, I never was particularly looking to become a writer and I didn’t really have a bar I was aiming for. I just started to write out some thoughts mainly for myself, and now after years of doing this, I’ve gotten decent at it. We often need to start small and stay small for years while whatever we’re working on develops.
Here recently I’ve been preparing to teach a one evening class which I’ve developed myself. As I got ready to set the date, I started to have doubts enter my head. “What am I doing? I’m not qualified to teach this. Am I being hypocrite in a way because I don’t have much experience in what I am teaching?” These might be appropriate questions, but in my case, I believe they are just tempting me to do nothing when I should be doing something. Am I perfect? No. Am I perhaps the world’s most qualified person? Certainly not. But I believe I have something I can share with others which may (hopefully) help them.
Lastly, when we’re considering something religious, it’s easy to become so concerned with doing things right that we won’t do anything out of fear that we might do it wrong. I think this is a problem and I plan to write about it more soon.
Here’s another short article on the same subject: You’re Never Going to be Fully Ready.