On enough

Enough is a decision, not a destination

You will never arrive at enough by achieving. You arrive by deciding. I know. I was annoyed too.

Every achievement moves the line. That is how comparison works. The line gets drawn by looking sideways at other people, and there are always more people, and they are always doing something.

So enough cannot be reached the way a target is reached. It has to be decided, the way you decide a room is tidy enough and go to bed.

The first time you say it, it feels arbitrary. That is correct. It is arbitrary. Enough is a choice you make, and nobody is going to send a certificate confirming that you have arrived.

The people who seem to have arrived are the ones who stopped checking. That is not a moral, it is just what the pattern looks like from outside: fewer calculations, more evenings.

What happens next is less dramatic than you expect. The ceiling does not fall in. You simply stop negotiating with a moving line and get an evening back. You notice it most at dinner, when somebody asks what you have been up to and you have nothing to report and it turns out not to matter.

Say it out loud about one thing today. This is enough. Then go and do something else.

On enough29 July
Correspondence

The Slow Letter

One slow note a week — a thought from the book, a story from my kitchen. Never a productivity tip. Leave whenever; I'll take it as self-care.

← previous next →
all notes