–Henry Van Dyke

I had a Professor that said, “Anything worth doing is worth doing badly!” It took us a while to let that sink in, until he brought his guitar to class and played that guitar and sang not too badly, but badly. He said he loved to play the guitar and sing. He wasn’t trying to go on a talent show or make it big in a rock band. He said why should he give up what he enjoyed because he couldn’t do it well. Some people are just not that talented in certain areas but everyone has skills, abilities, and talents.

Maybe he improved or maybe he didn’t, but he thought it was worth doing, even if he did it badly. He wasn’t asking anyone to listen or enjoy it, except for that one class, but he was teaching us an important lesson. We hear all these things growing up about striving for perfection. The only way to fail is to try to be perfect because that is unattainable as long as we are humans on this earth. Maybe we will evolve into a new world where we will all be perfect! That sounds kind of boring because there would be nothing to strive for. Just do your best and if you think it is good enough, then it is good enough!