I don’t strive for perfection. I acknowledge the entropy in my house and it doesn’t bother me too much. I know I’m not a perfect parent, but am hoping that love and fun outweigh my grouchy times.
Sometime, I get overwhelmed by too many choices and feel fatigued from many decisions. Choice is good, right? Except when you get overwhelmed by all the options! I remember offering my toddlers choices, but it was always, “Red cup or Blue cup?” Not, “Would you like a mug, glass, water bottle, tumbler or sippy cup?” That would have blown their tiny minds! 
In 2011, a New York Times article by John Tierney stated-
“No matter how rational and high-minded you try to be, you can’t make decision after decision without paying a biological price. It’s different from ordinary physical fatigue — you’re not consciously aware of being tired — but you’re low on mental energy. The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways. One shortcut is to become reckless: to act impulsively instead of expending the energy to first think through the consequences. (Sure, tweet that photo! What could go wrong?) The other shortcut is the ultimate energy saver: do nothing. Instead of agonizing over decisions, avoid any choice. Ducking a decision often creates bigger problems in the long run, but for the moment, it eases the mental strain.”
Sometimes I get stuck trying to find the best of something or doing the ultimate energy saver mentioned in the article- doing nothing. While this is nice for the short term, it doesn’t really help when it’s something I actually want to happen.
Enter Good is Good Enough. Every choice doesn’t have to be the best. I can make an educated, informed decision, but it still may not be and doesn’t have to be the best of everything. A good choice will be ok. Sometimes the work needed to move beyond good to amazing or perfect is not worth it or possibly. So settling in to Good is Good Enough is helpful for me.
This year in our new duty station I’ve been trying to find my kids a camp that works for both of their ages and will give me a break while my spouse is on TDY. Our large county has incredible summer camps and activity programming. I’ve spent hours combing through the options. I’ve gone back and forth on trying to schedule them at the same camp, different camp, same week, different week; the possibilities seem endless with a 58 page guide! Then there are the offerings from our city! Like I need more choices! Some wonderful parent actually made a spreadsheet you can search for multiple children, all the camps, only Wednesday’s, etc, but the supreme organization almost broke my brain more!
Finally I settled on a sports camp-same week, same location. Just when I thought this was a great option, I started thinking “Maybe it won’t be intense enough and they won’t learn enough to make it worth my money and their time,” and other less brilliant thoughts. I caught myself decision- spiraling and reminded myself that this is not a life choice and it will be good, even if it’s not life changing, and that’s enough! The likelihood of either of them being the next Pele is minute, so good is good enough!.
Sometimes we get the best duty station assignment, most of the time we probably don’t. Maybe it feels like a bad duty station but maybe there is something that can be good enough for the time we’re there.
My perspective is still limited; my kids haven’t reached double digits yet, but I already remember things I thought were a big deal that have turned out to be less than catastrophic. My 9 year old has no memory of a few decisions I definitely agonized over. Good is good enough- I thought recently when we had McDonald’s for lunch and pizza for dinner. There are always 7 days in a week and always time for vegetables tomorrow.
Good is good enough is my mantra to help bring perspective and see a larger picture.
While it may not be for everyone all the time, it’s good enough for me.
