A 'quick and dirty' job!
I thought I'd write a post on one of the key phrases I use to make a not-so-subtle point. It is always a delight when others pick them up and start using them with energy!
I'll start with 'quick and dirty' because of its instant success wherever it gets used!! It’s no doubt due to its inherent sexual frisson. The phrase was coined by a very good friend of mine. She admitted to me one day that with two young children some things just did not get the time they used to! I also thought that the sex angle would also draw a few extra readers to my blog! Shameful - I know!!
Quick and dirty is a trick I use when I intentionally want to cut a long and challenging job down to a ½ hour task - a flying start. Thanks to a conversation with @roz_davies and the intro to the Promodoro timer, I'm now amazed what can be achieved in 25 mins!! I set the timer at a time of day when I usually don't get much done - let alone started!! And Instead of procrastinating over something that could take 2 to 6 hours, I give it a go!
I recently listened to Iva Barr, the 86 year old woman who ran the London marathon talk about participation in similar terms. She said something along the lines of "no one is asking you to be the best, just show up, and have a go!" So it appears the idea has legs! (Groan!) I guess that's the spirit behind my 'quick and dirty'! It's better to do something, however small, rather than do nothing at all.
Let's face it our lives just do not allow for perfection do they? Sometimes, I think we set our goals so high we forget that what matters is to just pitch in at all. Perfectionism is dangerous when it stops us giving things a go. In some circumstances it is all well and good, but not at the price of not doing the job at all. For the most part, daily activity only requires that we get things done the best we can. In Eva's words it's not always necessary to win the race!
Brené Brown, speaks of the power of 'showing up', being at the event - being enough. That in competition, like in so many circumstances in our life, it’s being there that is important! Winning is the goal maybe, but not the full purpose. I see so many people talking themselves out of achieving their dreams because they get so wrapped up in aiming so high they don’t even start. They argue themselves silly, and forget that same energy could have got them started.
To me, it is doing anything I care about that matters! Whether it be cooking, biking, gardening, cleaning, or dare I say sex! None require excellence, let's face it, there's no leaderboard out there! The joy is the doing and the celebration of having done it. The satisfaction may not be in the performance, for example writing, but in the blog!
So let’s hear it for the 'quick and dirty'! A reminder to each other that getting stuck in means we are enoughto matter.Getting the job doneto the best standard - given time and energy - without fear of failure! It’s too easy to opt out, leave the work to others, denying ourselves the pleasure of an achievement - however small - our contribution the world. There are so many things we can do to change our lives, none that require absolute perfection, but all needing action.
