Do What You Can

Last week, like many parts of the U.S., Cincinnati was hit with a winter storm. And not just any winter storm, one with snow AND ice. In my area we had about 7 inches of snow, but the curveball was the layer of ice. After about a day in a half the precipitation stopped, the sun peaked through the clouds, and people in our neighborhood started to come out of their homes to attempt to shovel their driveways.

“Attempt” is a key word related to my performance, as it took my wife and I about an hour to clear the snow and ice 3 feet away from our garage door and 4 feet up from the bottom of the driveway. We quickly realized that there was no way we were going to get the whole driveway cleared and pivoted to clear what we needed so we could get our cars in and out of the garage, and similarly, in and out of the bottom of the driveway.?I created little snow “ramps” for the cars between the areas of snow left and the cleared areas, calling it a day thereafter.

You are probably thinking, “who cares?” or “why doesn’t this guy have a snow blower?” (answer = I bartered it for tree work years ago ??). The point is, I have learned that sometimes I cannot get done all that I would like to, either in general or in a certain period time, and that is OK. However, I can always aspire to think about what I can do to make progress or meet the basic need.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you know that you cannot get something done to the level of completion you would like, at home or at work, here are some things I have found helpful:

1. Evaluate – what is the minimum you can do to meet the need and still move forward? Sure, you may want perfection or to completely check something off your list, but there is likely a level of completion that is acceptable or at least allows you to make progress and come back to it later. Sometimes this means engaging others to level set expectations.
2. Act – once you identify the new acceptable outcome, quickly take action to work towards your new goal. Do not hesitate. But point #3 is key.
3. Let go – you cannot dwell on the previously desired outcome, the one that would have been perfection. You must give yourself grace in the fact that you are doing what you can based on your discernment in the evaluation step (your capacity, other priorities that need to be met, time available, and so on).

Early on in my career, and even sometimes to this day, I can struggle with striving for a level of contribution or outcome that is not realistic given the time available or current environment. And as the saying goes, perfection is the enemy of progress. However, when I take a step back to evaluate what I can do, act, and let go, I do make progress and learn along the way.

Fortunately, over the past day or so, the temperature is beginning to rise, and the snow will eventually melt away. We also have had no issues getting in and out of the driveway – indicating the minimum effort achieved the desired outcome. Now fingers crossed we do not experience another storm like that this season!

How to do approach doing what you can? Do you ever find that when you focus on progress vs. perfection it leads to better results??