"It don't take much to be enough"
It's that time again!
July 11th! Another week has come and gone. Here are this week’s updates, followed by musings on memes and perfectionism.
We walked! A small but mighty group got together at Skiles Test Nature Park this morning and gabbed, watched Henry roll around in the grass, and shared our non-work elevator pitches. There will be more, but in the meantime, THANK YOU to the folks who came and started my day off right!
I neglected to take pictures because I was having too much fun…but here’s proof our walk was a success! So sleepy! Masterclasses are now DIY! Meaning—you can do them on your own time!! Starting with next week’s (Boundaries, Rights, and Responsibilities) I’m going to record the highlights of the content and provide you with resources and practice activities. Masterclasses will be available through a paid subscription here on Substack, released on the third Wednesday of every month!
Catch me at Orangily! I have been having a PHENOMENAL time attending the Shift talks at Orangily, and will be speaking there on the morning of Thursday, July 31st at 8am. It’ll be a wonderful time, and the team at Orangily are all angels and their NA beverages are next level. Can’t make it to mine? There’s a different speaker every Thursday morning until the end of July! (Yesterday’s was Faith Blackwell and what a TREASURE to be able to pick her brain about making a living as a creative!)
Getting Selfish: Building A Healthy Self-Advocacy Practice is ON THE BOOKS! It’s a customizable experience: you can choose mornings or evenings for your two live sessions, you can do solo work on your own time, and you can choose if and when to do coaching afterward with me. It’s online and accessible from anywhere. AND, for TEN MORE DAYS, I have made five “Pay What You Can” slots available in each cohort, to remove the cost barrier for those who need it. No one has taken me up on this yet, and candidly, I’m surprised! Learn more and register here.
The Advice Series continues! This week, I answered MY OWN question because no one sent anything! It felt pretty good to post, if I’m being honest…AND I’d love to engage with others who’d like advice, a different perspective, or just a pep talk. Send me what’s on your mind! (And if you aren’t a paid subscriber but send me a question, I’ll of course send you the reply in full.)
Now, let’s get riffin’.
It don’t take much to be enough
As we often do, my husband and I were in the kitchen doing bits while we cooked one night. We were riffing on this:
This very popular meme features David Brandt, an Ohio farmer who unfortunately passed away in 2023. Although he was immortalized on the internet for one thing he said about his chosen vocation (at a Natural Resources Conservation Service event he hosted on his farm, btw), he was a known proponent of sustainable farming. I love when a meme can teach us about a cool dude. Rest in peace, Mr. Brandt.
Doing my best impression of David Brandt, probably in reference to some spice we were adding to our dinner, I said, “it don’t take much to be enough.”
At that point, Morgan paused, looked at me, and said, “okay, but that’s really good.”
Ever since, we’ve used the phrase to keep each other motivated, to push each other to just keep DOING.
When I worry about having under-prepared to have friends over, he replies, “it don’t take much to be enough.”
When he frets about the amount of work that needs to be done in the garden, I remind him “it don’t take much to be enough.”
When we beat ourselves up for not showing up fully in whatever way because we just didn’t have it in us, we say, “it don’t take much to be enough.”
I was texting with a friend earlier today about perfectionism and how its insidious little voice tells us, “if you’re not going to do it perfect, it’s not worth doing.” I’m embarrassed to admit the number of things I haven’t done, just for that very reason.
But perfection is a construct, and one that has hurt far more people and stopped far more amazing work from ever being seen than it has helped. You, on the other hand, are real and have plenty of real things to share with the world. Realness IS imperfection, and realness is also alive in the smallest of things. So, it really don’t take much…but it DOES take something.
WHEW this came right on time. The perfectionism is so hard to let go of!