An Introduction to Never Enough

An Introduction to Never Enough

Friends – Thank you for the many kind words after announcing my upcoming book Never Enough last week. I’ve heard from so many about your enthusiasm and the cause it supports – Gold Star Families – and for that, I’m very grateful.

As a follow up, I wanted to share an excerpt from the introduction to Never Enough. In it, I explain what “never enough” really means to me and how it’s a philosophy I think we can all use to achieve our goals and lift up the people around us.

In case you missed it you can find my previous post announcing Never Enough here.

Thank you for reading, Mike

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It was 2007 in Fallujah, Iraq. Three o’clock in the morning, out in the streets. Darkness, dust, misery, dehydration. Potential danger coming from every direction. My Navy SEAL Team was on an operation to find a particular set of bad guys, and we had brought ourselves to a house where we had learned they might be hiding. Most of the team had entered the house, and I was one of a few SEALs outside, providing “command and control” for our teammates inside.

Suddenly, an Iraqi man wearing a traditional long white robe stepped out of a neighboring house. He reached quickly into his outfit, his hand disappearing from view—and this is the moment a life-or-death decision had to be made.

I’ll jump to the ending. The man was pulling an ID card from his pocket. He was an innocent bystander who happened to be in a dangerous place and unwisely reached for something in his robe. Fortunately, my team had the confidence to wait a fraction of a moment, to assess the potential threat and think about the bigger picture before reacting. We could have shot him, but knew we had just a little bit of time to wait until we saw a little more—to get more information, to watch his face, his eyes, to watch his hand as it emerged from his robe.  We knew that to make the smartest decision, we needed to think and not just react, to reflect on what would ultimately make the biggest positive difference.  You never want to put yourself at risk, but you also never want to shoot an innocent civilian. 

It sounds, at first, like a simple enough story—innocent man not killed by SEAL Team—but it’s easy to imagine things turning out very differently. And it may sound unrelatable, if you’ve never been on the battlefield, but the reality is that each of us makes these kinds of decisions—to take action, or not—all the time, with varying stakes, and with varying time pressures. Should you take on a new project, or lower the risk of failure by sticking with something you’re already comfortable with? Commit to growth within your organization, or jump to a different one, hoping it’ll accelerate your career path? Reach out to a friend in need, or decide you just don’t have the time?

I’ve spent my career trying to figure out how to make these kinds of choices most effectively, learning from the most successful people around me how to approach the world and our fellow citizens in order to live a life of the highest meaning, mission, and value. We get better, I’ve certainly found, by reflecting on what we’ve done and listening to the journeys of others.  What I’ve seen is that the most successful, satisfied, fulfilled people around have always strived to contribute more, and pushed themselves to do as much as they can across whatever dimensions are most important to them, wherever they believe they can make the most difference.

This continuous striving to make a bigger difference—for yourself, for your organization, or for the world—is what I believe holds the key to great outcomes in almost any situation, and it’s the mindset I’m talking about when I say “Never Enough.” It’s this push to realize that the goal shouldn’t be to do just enough to get by, but to always look for more ways to make an impact.

I talk about “Never Enough,” and sometimes people get the idea that I’m pushing for perfection, for someone to never be able to feel proud of what they’ve accomplished or satisfied that they’ve done the best they can do. But that’s not it at all. “Never Enough” is about understanding that whatever you’re striving to accomplish—whether that’s becoming a SEAL, excelling in your current profession, or making a difference in the lives of the people in your family or community—you can always grow your capacity, increase your knowledge and skills, and invest more in the people and causes around you. It’s not just so that next time you take on a challenge, your best can be even better, but so you can push yourself to truly align your actions with the goals you’re trying to achieve.

We can never be present enough, purposeful enough, and thoughtful enough as we approach each day. We can do the hard thinking that helps us truly understand what motivates us, and what kind of life we’re hoping to live—and then we can harness our energy to get us closer to those goals. It’s about acting with intention rather than letting life carry us along on a trajectory we don’t control. It’s about considering our mission at every step along the way. It’s about aiming for excellence, agility, and meaning in everything we do and not being complacent and just giving up. We won’t all be SEALs, but we all have aspirations and dreams, and we can all improve the lives of our friends and colleagues, the organizations we choose to be part of, and the world. It’s never enough to give up trying to achieve the things that matter most to each of us—and that’s where this book aims to help.

Read the full introduction to Never Enough at celadonbooks.com

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