Years ago, I heard a speaker, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, who worked the refrain “it don’t matter” throughout his entire talk. He did it humorously and effectively. It was a version of “don’t sweat the small stuff,” and it made sense because who will remember those petty difficulties a year or two down the road?
Many years ago, I heard someone say, “There is no limit to what we can do if we don’t worry about who gets the credit.” Unfortunately, in our world today, we still have many people who labor under the illusion that they’ve got to do everything because they can’t depend on anyone else to do it right. In his beautiful book “The Great Lover’s Manifesto,” Dave Grant points out that the attitude “If I don’t do it, it won’t be done right” is a jealous, fear-filled attitude that keeps people stunted. The real issue may be “If I don’t do it, it won’t be done my way.”
That’s certainly a sobering thought and one that should give all of us pause to wonder, particularly the perfectionists in life who believe there are two ways to do anything: their way and the wrong way. These people, across the board, are generally frustrated and seldom end up developing and using their full potential. Perfection is hard to achieve. However, good effort and a sincere conviction that you’ve done your best are hallmarks of the big winners in life. I love the expression “Success is honest effort, fully expended, in quest of a worthy ideal.”
When you take that approach, the results will be so significant you won’t need to worry about who gets the credit or if the effort was perfect or not. Don’t sweat the small stuff, and you’ll have something to smile about.
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