Perfect. The word that most gets in the way of progress for Cleaning Up, Goals, and in general. Can we Pause and engage in a different way of thinking about PERFECT
Are you chasing Perfect? Let’s Pause and think about that…
“What you are reading is PERFECT!” You know that is Looney Tunes – and if I could get you to read that in my favorite character, Foghorn Leghorn, “It’s a joke son! You missed it!” it would be perfect. Early in life, I ran across many characters like this, and eventually came to be a student of them, adopting some of their best (and worst) mannerisms, including what people say about my engagement all the time: “Often wrong, never in doubt”.
With the recent snowfall here in the mountains, we are now into the season of “I was outside shoveling snow when…”. We are at exactly 3000 feet at the top of our driveway – the road is exactly 100 feet lower, and exactly 200 feet long – your trig would tell you that is exactly 30 Degrees 😉 Which should give you Pause if you are starting to shovel from the top. At that angle, you are about as likely to slide down the driveway as to actually get the snow off of it.
So, what is the Perfect way to get the driveway clear? As I step out each time, I do surprisingly engage in time thinking about it, Pause, develop a plan, which about halfway through I realize that the Perfect way is to… get the snow off any way I can. I could regale you with each different Perfect approach I have tried, and which ones actually were close, but the short version is, each time I have to resign myself to just getting it done.
What music is Perfect? Pause and engage differently in what is Music…
A better way to say what I meant above is: this BLOG is the PERFECT result of a rant. I am on a listserv of about 2000 coaches around the world that support each other in trying to change the world around us through our work with leaders at all levels. Someone posted a question about Perfection, and without Pausing, in the Perfect Foghorn’s voice, ripped off 10 examples of Music around us that came from exactly the opposite – mistakes. Recording screwups, equipment built “wrong”, tunes that were recorded backwards… that are all now fixtures of music. And rather than try to engage you by convincing you of mistakes being the target, let me try another approach.
If you have watched It Might Get Loud (and if you have not, please add that to your queue), Jack White says “…when you start studying music, you’re taking a highway directly back to the blues”. The easy answer goes back to Robert Johnson. Never taking the easy path, I dug a bit deeper and found my cousin (I wish) – again, cue Foghorn’s voice… “Son – Son I am talking to you.” Son House. It is Jack White’s favorite artist and he also picks up on what is Perfect. And since this is, after all, House’s blog, this would be a good person to engage about Perfect music.
What Perfect “House” are you engaged in building?
Edward James House was born near the turn of the century in the deeply racist Clarksdale Mississippi as the middle child of 3 brothers. His father was a tuba player with his brothers, and they played often in the Church. His parents separated when he was young and he bounced around the south in the early teens of his life and the Century. He eventually landed near New Orleans where the new “delta blues” was emerging. Dogmatically focused on religion, he was adamantly opposed to the blues – as the Devil’s music and far from Perfect. How did this start to his life end up with him now being called the Father of Folk Blues – which even precedes Johnson? Will it be the Perfect story to consider “Perfect”? Can we Pause… and engage differently…
Is Pausing Perfect or Perfect Pausing for you?
I realized that Perfect has seven letters, and always engaging a challenge, I want to dissect those letters, and reprogram them to be helpful in thinking about where we are going. Today for P – Pause. Not a core competency for me, it is emerging as something I have to actively engage before… heading down the driveway. Literally. As this year now is seriously is gaining momentum down your own driveway, what can help you Pause before you engage? Son, I say Son, what’d you say? – Grinnin’ in Your Face…
