What does Good Enough Mean?
Why "perfect" is the enemy of the life you actually want to live.
As much as I would like to take credit for this philosophy that I deeply believe in, it was a therapist who introduced me to it. At the time, I was struggling to meet all my expectations and wasn’t satisfied with how I couldn’t do everything that I wanted without compromising on other important aspects of my life. This is still true i.e., I can’t do everything, but this one approach has helped me change my mindset and definition of what it means to strive in one aspect of my life while keeping other aspects in check too.
The Good Enough philosophy recognizes our shortcomings as a human i.e., you don’t have to be perfect – you just have to be Good Enough. Whether it’s your finances, health or relationships, you don’t have to burn yourself out just so you can be a ‘master’ at that thing – instead you can be Good Enough to the point that you’re meeting your other commitments too. Using a practical example here: you don’t have to stop take outs for dinner completely – you just have to stop ordering it daily. Getting take-out food [insert frequency that works for you] is Good Enough. You don’t have to ruthlessly climb the career ladder as fast as possible while sacrificing your health – you can take a slower approach if that means you can be active [insert frequency that works for you] times a week. This philosophy is about doing more without burning yourself out and not disappointing yourself because you’re not there for that special someone or for yourself.
I’ve been living by this philosophy for a few years now but have become more intentional with my decision-making after giving it a formal definition and naming it. It’s helped me be a more well-rounded person by allowing me to do more and at my own pace. This philosophy helps me dictate the pace, set my own goals, without the society setting them for me, and prioritize them however I’d like. It’s also stopped me from feeling guilty just because I wasn’t meeting the high standards that I set for myself. I’m still not perfect and I do, from time to time, ignore my own ideas in favor of doing what society tells me to do. I’m still learning but everyday that passes, I’m getting better at it and refining the philosophy to work with the different chapters of my life. This is the beauty of this idea: you are responsible for the interpretation of what this means to you. If you want to excel at one thing, you can set the threshold of what that means.
Like most other philosophies in life, this one isn’t perfect so I’ll be talking over the pros and cons, which might help you decide if this is the right approach for you or not.
Pros (in no particular order)
This approach helps you live a balanced life. Because you’re not striving to achieve excellence in one aspect of your life, you have the breathing space to help you meet all your other goals. In essence, you don’t have to sacrifice one aspect for another.
Living by the Good Enough philosophy means that you can manage at a slower pace, thereby, decreasing the chances of burning out. I remember, back when I was in school, I had the goal of getting three A*s in my A-Levels and so this meant saying no to social events, not looking after my health and sacrificing on nutrition. In the end, I didn’t end up achieving this goal and instead just felt burnt out, without the satisfaction of achieving my goals.
As you grow up, you realize that life isn’t without its own curveballs and I’m not even talking about significant life events. Even during the mundane day-to-day events of daily life you come across days when you’re physically drained because of an argument at work, you are stuck in traffic longer than usual, or you have to make an unexpected trip to the doctors – this approach gives you the breathing room for unexpected events and even mistakes you make. Because you live by this Good Enough approach, you might have fewer events in your calendar and so this naturally gives you room to maneuver as you see fit.
You get to dictate life at your own pace, thus, giving you more space to rest. This doesn’t necessarily mean adding it to your calendar but you give yourself the permission to rest and avoid living life with a hustle mindset.
Because you’re living a more balanced life where you’re doing all the things you should be doing without having to give up on other things, you become a generalist in life instead of a specialist. You are a more well-rounded person because you don’t have to sacrifice on aspects such as health (mental and physical) while looking after your health (as an example).
People who appreciate being adaptable will love this approach because you don’t have to rush each task and are doing fewer things, which means you can be more mindful and present when doing an activity. You don’t have to rush to go through your calendar because you’ve adopted a slower approach to life.
This philosophy is super mindful – can be applied to any aspect of life e.g. finance, sleep etc. It’s how you define it that matters, not the aspect of it.
Energy is a finite resource and those productivity gurus who want you to show up 100% of the time and give your 200% isn’t realistic – this is. You actively consider what’s doable for you given all the other constraints you have in your life. You also have the opportunity to take your energy into account, for example if you know Thursday is a longer day at work, so you can plan your week accordingly.
This is one of the most underrated pro here but defining what Good Enough means for you is 100% customizable and flexible. Depending on your circumstances, you will have a different meaning of what Good Enough means for the specific aspect of your life. Plus, that standard isn’t set in stone – it can change whenever you’d like – no commitment and pressure! You’re in total control here.
You get to define what Good Enough means for you i.e., you define the standard. You can refer to other sources but ultimately, it’s your call. If that standard is too high or low for you, feel free to change it. It’s rare that your standard will match someone else and that’s alright too.
Cons (in no particular order)
Given that this approach makes you a generalist, it won’t be useful (perhaps could be detrimental) for those who want to achieve a “mastery” of a certain skill. Wanting to become a master of something means dedicating a big portion of your time to that, which ultimately comes at a cost.
This is a bit of a glimpse into the future, but I can see how adopting this approach will mean that you could have regrets in the future. For example, taking a slow approach to improvement in a particular sport could mean that you might not get selected to play for a team, which might haunt you in the future as you get older and your chances of playing competitively decrease significantly. It all depends on whether you’re comfortable accepting the consequences of your decisions or not.
You will naturally “waste” more time in the form of rest and taking your time completing a task. While I don’t consider this a con, I can see how the productivity gurus would roll their eyes at this. Because you’ve set a lower standard for what it means to be Good Enough, you will be at the gym less frequently than most, which is something the gurus will criticize you about.
Defining Good Enough means compromising on not being able to achieve true success in one particular aspect of your life. Again, this comes down to how comfortable you are with the consequences of the decision.
Get ready to hear some push back from family and friends who subscribe to the ‘give your 200% towards everything’ approach. This is definitely not the norm for the society, who always expects you to meet all your commitments and achieve mastery in every aspect of your life.
If you have a goal of “running a 5K marathon next month”, this approach means you’ll be making slower progress towards that goal, so it isn’t always ideal. It’s possible you won’t be ready for the marathon because you haven’t dedicate enough time towards that goal.
Similar to the point of not being able to achieve “mastery” – this mentality isn’t for everyone. Athletes, professionals aggressively trying to climb the corporate ladders or entrepreneurs focused on growth should probably stay away from this approach because it means taking a step back and compromising that excellence in favor of adopting the generalist mindset instead.
Because this isn’t the norm of the society, this can take some getting used to at the beginning i.e., there is some unlearning you’ll have to do before you learn to adopt this mindset. It’s about unlearning that you do everything to the best of your ability without compromising on one particular thing and learning how to be comfortable with taking a slow approach towards a goal.
Lastly, this mindset can be used as an excuse to avoid putting in the effort if you have to do something quick and important. For example, if you have a medical condition that requires you to modify your diet and implement some lifestyle changes, you can’t take a Good Enough approach and use that as a shield to get you to stop making that aggressive change – you will have to perfect or it can have dire consequences.
Well, I hope the pros and cons listed above helped you to decide if this is something you would like to try and adapt to your life. Maybe you’re unsure what this means in terms of the practical aspects of your life, but I’ve given some examples that may help you start the brainstorming process.
Examples of the Good Enough Philosophy
Physical Health
“Go to the gym for strength training three times per week”
“Walk 5,000 steps daily”
“Stretch for 10 minutes before leaving for work”
Mental Health
“Meditate for 10 minutes daily during lunch break”
“Eat dinner without any screens”
“Go for walks without my phone and earphones for 30 minutes”
Career
“Ensure all my emails have been replied to at the end of the week”
“Set up monthly calls with my mentor”
“Apply for 3 jobs every day”
Family
“Call parents once a week to check in”
“Set up monthly dinner with siblings”
“Spend one distraction-free day with my child”
Relationships
“Go on monthly dates with my spouse”
“Schedule weekly calls with friends”
“Visit a friend in another country once every quarter”
Nutrition
“Have a no sugar day once a week”
“Eat healthy every weekday”
“Limit caffeine to 2 cups of coffee a day”
Sleep
“No food 4 hours before bedtime”
“No phone use one hour before bedtime”
“Sleep at a regular time every weekday”
Finances
“Stay within budget 80% of the time”
“Invest 5% of my monthly pay”
“Pay off 5% of my credit card debt each month”
I want to reiterate that the standards you set for each aspect of your life that defines what Good Enough means can be customized for each season of your life. Maybe you’re a new parent so being Good Enough in your physical health means walking for 10 minutes after each meal so that you have more time with your newborn and can help more at home. Since you’re not letting the society set that standard for you, no one can tell you if that’s Good Enough or not – you’re in full control here.
Anyways, I hope I’ve convinced you to, at the very least, to give this philosophy a try – I don’t think you’ll regret it. In fact, if implemented correctly, I suspect you’ll really enjoy the balance and wholeness this will bring to your life and the freedom in your day-to-day. You’ll have more headspace and space in your calendar to rest, recover and use that extra time on things you enjoy. Like all stances in life, it’s important to be easy on yourself and to take it at your own pace. This isn’t a competition, and you don’t have to compare yourself to anyone else except your past self. I keep reminding myself “it is better to crawl than to stay stationary” and the progress, although slower, is sustainable.
As a thank you for reading this far, I’ve prepared a free guide on how I plan my week using the Good Enough philosophy, which has led me to have more free time than ever without feeling guilty and bad about myself. The link to the guide can be found here.
Again, thank you for taking the time to read about my philosophy and I hope this works for you. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions or thoughts!
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This sounds like the Taoist middle way … I have been living in the land of enoughness for quite some time…essentially when abundance mindset and scarcity mindset were being discussed and I could tell it just created a lack mindset of never quite good enough. So I got off that train that was the capitalist dream of more and have been living a life toward enoughness. I love your breakdown with what it actually looks like in categories. This is all very thoughtful and considerate.