Don’t let PERFECT be the enemy of GOOD.
That’s some advice I was given in a firearms course I took a few years ago. I was psyching myself out because I didn't think I could do the drill to the proficiency level I wanted it done, which of course was interfering with my ability to just DO IT. Like other tips I’ve picked up over time this one strikes a chord in so many aspects of my life, not just when I’m shooting. I tend to be a perfectionist. Not the kind that judges the work of others against a crazy high standard. The kind that judges my own performance so harshly that I often opt NOT to do something I may be able to get good at simply because I’m not already an expert at it. I “prejudge” before I even begin, because I know there is a great chance I won’t be PERFECT on the first try. Somewhere along the way I started learning I didn’t have to have all the steps memorized before I started down a path. I realized the phrase GOOD ENOUGH isn’t an insult… it’s literally GOOD ENOUGH! I have a confession. I don’t know how to be a farmer. I grew up on this land, but we didn’t farm it. We had a few (OK, a lot of) critters over the years but they were pets, not livestock. I don’t know how to raise a cow. I don’t know which breed of goats to start with. I don’t know how to build a rabbit colony. In fact along the way there have been a host of things I didn’t know how to do. I didn’t know, that is, until I DID! We live in a fabulous era where all the information, opinions, and resources we could want are literally at our fingertips. Don’t know where the nearest gas station is? There’s an app for that. Lonely and need a date? Several apps for that. How to train your dragon? Well, that one’s a movie, but lots of info lives on the interwebz depicting how to train everything from your puppy to your iguana to your baby brother. Yup, it’s all out there and FREE to anyone wanting to learn. Unfortunately that means there is also a lot of pressure to get it PERFECT the first time. If you read everything there is to read about how to purchase, raise, and care for baby chicks, you will likely feel it’s an impossible task that only seasoned veterans should attempt. Afterall, what if the brooder temp falls below 90` during the first week? Who can stay up 24/7 making sure that doesn’t happen?? SURELY you shouldn’t attempt chicken rearing if you don’t have a professionally built coop with exact dimensions to suit the breed and number of chickens all completed WELL in advance of getting said chickens! And opinions? OH the opinions! Do THIS! Don’t do THAT!! Who can keep up?? If I took nothing else away from the beekeeping class I attended, I will always remember this: If you ask 100 beekeepers how you should tend your bees, you will get 105 different answers! Want to know how to raise chickens? Ask your grandparents. If they didn’t raise them, good chance they knew someone who did. And you know what? They didn’t have the interwebz to tell them how to get it PERFECT, so they tried some stuff and figured out how to make it GOOD ENOUGH. If we’d waited until we knew how to make things perfect we’d probably still be waiting for our first flock of chickens. Instead I read enough to have a pretty good idea how to NOT kill a box full of chicks, got Brian some ideas about what we needed in a coop, and placed an order online with a hatchery that got some good reviews. When the post office called to tell me the chicks were there we didn’t have a coop, we’d borrowed a feeding trough for a brooder, and had food, water, and a heat lamp to get them started. Then we started DOING! The first flock was a little daunting. We tried to make it all perfect. Food, temperature, coop dimensions. Things went well, but we probably put a lot more PERFECT in it than was necessary. Much like a lot of parents will tell you - first child = perfect set up. Next few kids = GOOD ENOUGH! Our newest batch of chicks has a heat lamp. No thermometer. When they stop huddling under it I’ll raise it higher. When they start avoiding it I’ll remove it all together. When they run low on food and water I'll refill it. Find some worms in the yard? Throw them in (smallish ones) and see what the girls do. Remember, their mama wouldn’t be feeding them medicated granulated formulated poultry starter. She’d been feeding them bugs… so… Housing? When we moved here with our established flock I looked at our 40 year old shed and said “I think we can make that work”, and wouldn’t you know it… we did. I’m not saying you should jump in without doing some research. I’m saying don’t wait until you’re an expert to TRY something! Start a hobby farm. Take a shooting class. Remodel a house. Start a beehive. Paint a portrait. Write a book. Start a business. Prepare a new meal. Do some research, use common sense, but remember if you aren’t failing, you aren’t learning! You may never be PERFECT at everything, but if you don’t start you also won’t ever be GOOD at anything. Don't let a fear of PERFECT keep you from being GOOD!
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AuthorTucker (pomeranian) is an author of marginal famou'nicity. Catch his Tucker Tuesday farm pupdates here and on the Toby Way Farm facebook page. Archives
April 2023
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