The Enemy of Good

I have been working on a project lately that involves a lot of detail.  There are pricing elements that must be exactly right, spreadsheets, signage, lots and lots of details that if errors occur it would cause our company to lose a lot of money.

My tendency (and personality!) is to work on it and work on it and work on it. To stay on this project until everything is MORE than right.  Until there are even better things I have done with this project that would make it even better than when I started.  It is important to our company’s success for it to be over the top, right?  It is important to the other departments that ultimate will interact with the final product that this is something that is better than they could have ever imagined, right?

I have to stop at some point though.  And that’s where it gets hard.   If I keep working on it, I will go past the point of diminishing returns. I want it to be perfect.

But perfect is the enemy of good.

Leaving something after having worked and worked and worked on it is a GOOD thing, staying on a project past the point of being useful to yourself, your company, or its purpose is a BAD thing.

Of course a real Christian Businessman want to do well.  The Lord even commands us to do this:

“ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for man.” Col 3:23 (NIV)

But even God knows (gosh He knows everything), since He created the 24 hours in our days that our time is in a finite medium.  Many times we end up working past our usefulness on a project and should already be onto the next thing.  Other things at work (and in life) need to be addressed.

I’m encouraging you today to think about those things that you may need to move past.  Remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect!

What are you working on right now that needs to end so you can get on to the next “thing”?