[PODCAST 323]: The “Good Enough” Strategy That Actually Works for Busy, High-Achieving Individuals

Are you a high achiever who is either looking to build momentum or hoping to create life balance in the midst of all the “doing”? We’re diving into some solid solutions for you today!

So many things can stop us from making progress.

At LearnDoBecome we want to help you out of the overwhelm so you can do what matters most, but “what matters most” comes under attack. Urgent needs of a person you care about, an overwhelming number of texts, emails, notifications, or things that will keep you “busy,” health issues, emotional issues, the entropy of everyday life. I understand because if I’m not incredibly deliberate, my days, weeks, and months can slip away.

Perfectionism comes from a good place, but it’s one of the biggest “progress-stoppers” of all.

In our minds, we know this. Here at LearnDoBecome, even, we talk about “architecting a life of excellence,” but if we aren’t wise, we can think that we are creating excellence by waiting until just the perfect time to do those things we know will make a difference in our lives.

Organize the office? Sure! Once I have nothing on my calendar for 3 consecutive weeks.

Get that certification? Yes—when all my family challenges subside. Start eating right? As soon as my stress level goes down!

Now, of course we can’t do everything at once, and of course we need to honor the pressure we’re currently facing so we don’t overwhelm ourselves with way too many expectations, but we all know that the perfect day, the perfect time, the perfect family, and the perfect circumstances don’t actually exist.

There’s one “secret weapon” in all of this, however, that deserves to be emphasized.

I talk a lot about the STEP Command Central, and that is definitely the tool I use to manage all the stuff of life, but even if we have all the files, folders, and lists set up, our heads can stop us with things like distraction and procrastination. But the secret weapon I’m sharing today truly has the power to help us make immediate progress and simultaneously beat our tendencies towards perfectionism. It’s called “Doing Something Mediocre Every Day.”

This doesn’t mean everything we do is mediocre.

I definitely need to caveat this “secret weapon” because I don’t want to be a mediocre wife, mom, neighbor, coach, podcaster, friend, sister, etc. And I don’t want to go to a mediocre doctor or have a mediocre plumber fix my sink. In fact, Eric suggested I replace the word “mediocre” with the word “acceptable”—meaning that we work towards a good standard without getting paralyzed by the goal of being perfect.

That also reminds me of the word “satisfice” that I’ve spoken about several times before. “Satisfice is a decision-making strategy that involves selecting the first option that meets minimum requirements, rather than searching for the optimal or best solution. Coined by Nobel laureate Herbert Simon, it is a blend of ‘satisfy’ and ‘suffice,’ representing a ‘good enough’ approach that saves time, effort, and cognitive resources.” The reason I use the word “mediocre,” however, is because I heard it over lunch with a couple of friends who are family therapists. They work with a lot of perfectionistic college students, and they shared that one key to improved mental health is to do something mediocre every day. Shoot for it. Make that an actual goal—because when you DO, you push the limits of your comfort zone, you give yourself grace, and you make progress.

A willingness to be mediocre is how STEP was born.

Steps to Everyday Productivity, our signature program here at LearnDoBecome that helps you to build a Command Central and organize your mind and life, would probably not exist if I’d waited for it to be perfect. Tens of thousands of people have become STEPpers, and we receive testimonials every day about how it is changing lives, but let me take you back a decade and share a little about what was going on behind the scenes. Eric and I had just started LearnDoBecome.

This was our dream—to work together and to build a community online that we could serve. We knew that organization and productivity resources would be part of what we offered at LearnDoBecome, and we knew that we wanted to adapt the program I had made just for moms to a broader audience, but there was SO much going on. We were preparing to move to a different state with our four children, my mom was in the last stages of Alzheimer’s, we had some time-intensive roles in our church community, and I was working with two other organizations online, balancing it all as well as I could.

Then one day, Eric said, “What if we taught a webinar for the STEP program and just offered Module 1? And then we could tell people that the next modules would be delivered, one per week, until the whole program was finished?” Initially, this idea felt incredibly scary. Each module needed audios, videos, transcripts, written instructions, pictures, etc.—and I wanted to feel proud of my work…not like I just threw something up there. But Eric had the energy to organize all the marketing, and I knew if I kept things simple, I could easily make the program in bite-sized piece.

The program has been redesigned several times since then, but if you were to go back and look at my very first modules, you’d see crayon drawings I photographed (I didn’t know how to use our scanner and I didn’t know how to find a designer), simple videos recorded on my phone without a lapel microphone (I propped my phone up on books so I could film myself at my desk), simple audios from me and Eric (I put bullet points together and then we would record from a couple of $20 microphones I got on Amazon), and very, very simple written instructions.

Was the program “mediocre”? By my standards, yes. But did it help people? Did we start getting testimonials right away? Did it launch us on the path we’re on now—where we keep improving, step by step, and where we’re not afraid to TRY? Absolutely. I share all of this because this same pattern has played out in every area of my life. Everything I truly value today got started because I wasn’t afraid to be mediocre.

And you might be thinking, “But what if….?”

So let’s roll with that. 🙂 I’ve been there, too. What if people criticize me? What if I get a reputation for BEING mediocre? What if I stop having standards altogether and turn into a big failure? My personal opinion is that if we are even asking these questions, it means those things won’t happen.

Once you have your STEP System in place, you’ll have more support when it comes to deciding on your projects and routines, breaking down next actions, and setting yourself up for success. I don’t want to ignore the fact that your identity IS going to change. That might feel a little scary (or very scary) because you’re likely known as someone who is impressive, has it all together, and does so much that others have their jaw open when they hear all that you’ve been up to. But we all know that isn’t sustainable, and I promise that changing your identity into something that is truly healthy will be well worth the effort.

Let me give you one more example that has been a game changer for us inside STEP. It’s called “Function Before Fancy.” Essentially it means, “Build your system so it is functional FIRST, and don’t get all stressed out if the pieces don’t match your desk or if you don’t have your walls painted your ideal shade of blue. Use cereal boxes, file folders, painters’ tape… Let it be ugly—even embarrassingly ugly. But get started and build something.”

In fact, I reached out to Coach Taryn, who coined the phrase, and this is how she came up with it: “It was something that came to my mind as we were preparing for the most recent [STEP] revamp. I kept seeing how STEPpers were getting stuck on wanting to have everything perfect and pretty and they were letting that perfectionism stop them from progressing. They wanted their Command Centrals to look exactly like yours or somehow it didn’t count and wouldn’t work. The phrase Function Before Fancy #FunctionBeforeFancy popped into my head a day or two before Alia and I drove down to brainstorm [with you]. I loved the thought! It’s a way to help our members push through the perfectionism and see that they’ve already likely got all that they need in their homes to be successful. Once they’ve got the flow of how things will work for them, then they can switch things out for “fancy” or pretty items.”

Isn’t that great? Now our STEPpers use that phrase when they post photos of their first set-ups. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. Doing something is what gives us momentum.

What’s a first step towards something meaningful that YOU can take this week?

You might not be building a STEP System right now, but it’s likely that there’s something you need or want that feels so far from perfect that you’re avoiding it altogether. Is there a “function before fancy” option that inspires you? Is there a “mediocre” way you could get started—and could you feel genuinely proud of yourself in the process? I’d love to hear your thoughts (and your success stories!) in the comments.

Remember that the fact that you are even here speaks volumes.

You know you want more for your life, and you’re taking ownership of that. That’s rare these days, and we are so happy to have you here! You can look down in the related links to learn about our STEP program, our STEP Coaching membership, and our ARISE community! We’re thrilled you’re with us and will see you soon!

xoxo

April

Community Highlights!

Jody shared a fun “money found” win:

Kay shared this computer desktop transformation after our digital decluttering workshop:

Catherine shared a beautiful desk transformation:

Frances shared this photo and the following successes:

~ Setup Command Central.
~ Have Tickler and Support Materials Folders
~ Created a Year 2026+ Tickler file for tasks such as passport renewal, etc. (thanks to everyone for your suggestions on this)
~ View “all inboxes” for Gmail on my phone (instead of switching from one inbox to another).
~ Used the sweep function in Hotmail to delete about 8,000 emails
~ Setup new landing areas. I had landing areas for my keys, purse, phone and glasses but they were spread out in several places in my apartment. Now they are all in one area.
~ Did my first pass at the weekly review on Monday.
~ Setup next action context lists on my phone.
~ Did goal process, creating a list of steps needed for each project and added the first step to the next action context list.
~ Did a brain dump of tasks. Did it on paper because on the computer I have a tendency to keep changing the font, the order, etc. When a task is moved to my next actions list or is completed I cover it with tape (see attached image).
~ Still waking up in the morning with some panic about everything that has to be done but also feeling, for the first time in years, that there is hope that I can get this together.

Karen shared this message in our Facebook group:

Tammie shared this post in our Facebook group and also wrote that she is sleeping better and feeling more at peace and hopeful rather than overwhelmed by all the things.