To Become Great, You Have To Be OK With Not Being Great - For The Interested

To Become Great, You Have To Be OK With Not Being Great

I’m a good writer. I’ve put in my 10,000 hours.

I learn from the ideas I share weekly in my For The Interested newsletter.

And I want everything I write to be great.

But that doesn’t mean this post will be. It probably won’t.

Because most things aren’t great — no matter how much experience or desire you have.

Greatness takes time. Patience. Magic.

It’s not formulaic. It’s unpredictable.

This post is going to be OK.

It may interest you. Make you think. See the world differently.

It may not change your life, but may be worth the minutes you invest in it.

It will be worth the time I invest in writing it.

It will be OK. And I’m OK with that.

You have to be OK with just being OK.

Most people aren’t. That’s why they quit. Or never start.

They don’t feel their work is great, so they abandon it.

They don’t think it moves others, so they bury it.

They refuse to settle for less than perfection, so they settle for nothing.

As a result, they never get to great.

Because being OK with being OK is a necessary step toward great.

It frees you to do the work you need to do to get better.

It enables you to create. To avoid being paralyzed by the pressure of your own expectations.

It allows you to evolve.

Great is never guaranteed.

Doing OK work doesn’t mean you’ll ever get to great.

But it means someday you might.

And I’m OK with that.