I'm not sure if it's original to any particular author but I first read this phrase a few years ago and it stuck in my normally fluid brain. "Good is the enemy of better."
I can't recall exactly but I think I read it in a James Hollis book. I've read pretty much everything this author has written and I've attended many of his lectures. He's a visionary but more importantly, he has the ability to speak about personalities, complexes and the like in a language that everyone can understand and relate to. In the C. G. Jung community, he's one the the main guys (although these intellectual types wouldn't put it this way").
His most recent book, "What Matters Most" is intended to challenge us "to have a more interesting life, a life that disturbs complacency".
I bring this up because as with most of us, I'm beginning to process the year 2009 and reflect on what I might change in 2010. Yes, I'm talking about resolutions. The phrase, "good is the enemy of better" is helpful because I don't want to ignore anything that might be going well. For example, maybe there's something that's working ok in my business but if I challenge myself a bit more, I could make it much better. Or perhaps there's a banjo lick that I've been using over the years and I like it very much. Does that mean I can't make it better? Of course not. The easy thing would be to sit back and nestle into a state of complacency but that's counter productive......and boring.
Change is good but not for the sake of change.
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