There are no two words more harmful in the English language than ‘good job’.

DAMIEN CHAZELLE

Are you content when you’ve done a good job?

And if so, why is that?

When we live in a world that is entirely constructed of shades of gray, what is it specifically that facilitates our willingness to accept anything less than the best that we are capable of doing?

There is no question that the path to brilliance is paved with continuous attempts towards brilliance, but I believe the distinction lies in the unerring assumption that, until it is absolutely brilliant, everything else is just a placeholder.

I took this, quotation from the movie Whiplash, written and directed by Damien Chazelle, in which JK Simmons plays a merciless band conductor in the top music school in the United States. His perspective in this mindset, is spelled out as the concept that continuous mild accolades on the way to brilliance, potentially decreases the strive to ever get to brilliance.

I will not speak to whether or not his methodologies are valid or appropriate, but in terms of how or why this internal mindset is critical to ourselves, and our own internal perception of ourselves, could not be any more important.

If we feel that we are maintaining and slowly gaining ground, we feel empowered that we are progressing, and that the efforts that we are putting in are sufficient.

But I can tell you that as soon as you take away any shade of gray, the entire thought process unquestionably changes. When you are working to pass a black belt test in a martial art, there is no shade of gray. You either do it 100% and you pass or you have failed. End of story.

If you have failed, the expectation is, you will go back and practice continuously until you are the caliber necessary to pass that examination or you will never ever achieve that next belt.

Having gone through three of these examinations and working diligently on my fourth, I can tell you that the thought process is entirely different when you are practicing, in the sense that you do not accept something as well, “that was good enough.” Instead you see the tiniest flaws in your approach and your execution and predicated upon those, you must overcome them at whatever prerequisite is required.

When you see the world in that binary perspective, there is no ‘good job,’ there is only ‘you are what you have set out to be, or you are not.’

As one of the greatest Jedis of all time would say, “Do or do not. There is no try.” Yoda is accurate in that regard. This may seem harsh if you are not accustomed to thinking along these lines, and on some level, perhaps it is, but the core truth is that life is harsh and life seldom gives you opportunity for a good job to be acceptable, when there is the opportunity to engage with someone who will work to the nth degree to be exemplary in their attitude, demeanor, and execution.

Happy Saturday!