By Sara Hazel McCoy
October 26, 2026

I’ve put off writing this post for a long time. Months. Over a year, actually. Because it wasn’t going to be perfect. I didn’t have all of the exact words I wanted to use immediately at the time of writing it. My desk was too cluttered. There was another box to unpack. An email came in that I needed to research before I replied to it. Someone walked by with a question that turned into a 45 minute conversation about a lot of important things. I needed to refill my water. So this kept sitting in the back of my mind, not even a blank Google document yet, while I ruminated on how to articulate what I wanted to share.

I didn’t want to allow space to just write and edit later. That would take up too much time. Putting something on paper without it being final? Never. Was what I wanted to share even worthy? No one else can possibly be this neurotic. But also, it’s not like I’m special. Everyone can probably relate to this. So then why should I bother? It’s not new or different or unique. It’s not perfect. It won’t be perfect. I’m not perfect. I won’t ever be perfect. 

I’m not perfect. I try, really, really hard, I do. Sometimes, as I’ve learned, to the detriment of success. I can get caught in a loop of thinking and trying but not actually doing. Or taking longer to do, or procrastinating the doing. 

I see this manifesting in areas across my life. The pile of unfolded (but clean) laundry on the couch. The box of still packed office things from a move that happened 3 months ago (that contains another box of unpacked office things from a move that happened 3 years ago…). The idea that’s written on the dry erase board. The other idea written underneath it.

But I’m trying. 

Because the trying is where a lot of the learning happens. And where a lot of things actually get done, in the trying along the way. 

Some phrases that I’ve held onto in the last 6 years or so: 

• Do you want to be right, or do you want to be successful?

• • Sometimes, I change this in my mind to, “Do you need it to be perfect, or do you need it to be done?”

• That sounds like a “raincloud task.” It’s just hovering. You’re thinking about it longer than it would take you to just do it. 

• What’s mission critical? What are our critical failure points?

• That is 100% good enough.

Good enough? What? Wait. I’m intrigued… Good enough? 

At first, the idea of being good enough didn’t feel good. Probably because it didn’t feel perfect, if we’re being honest here. It felt insulting. Yet, it’s far easier for me to tell my staff to temper or settle or shift because something is good enough. I think that’s something that probably resonates with others. Learning this for myself, though, AND being willing to accept it and temper myself, that’s way harder, way different. But is it? Should it be?

Perfectionism isn’t always realistic, nor is it always the most productive. My perfectionist tendencies have clashed with my achiever strength, probably my entire life. There are things I’ve put off because I didn’t think I could or would do it perfectly. I might take more time to learn as much as I can about what something is, what the expectations are surrounding a commitment, or everything that could go wrong with how we might do something. Rather than chunking larger tasks, I wait until I can do the whole thing. That’s evident if you look at my house or my office, even as I desperately try to combat that tendency. 

The last 4 years or so have really been enlightening in working on challenging those perfectionist tendencies. When I moved into this Assistant Director role, I didn’t always have the option to take the time required for something to be “perfect” because of how much was suddenly on my plate. I also quickly realized that perfect to me wasn’t something that was always needed, even noticed by others, or what others considered perfect. I might have a grand idea of how something should happen, but that may not always be realistic. Some of my expectations were unrealistic. Some of my expectations fell short of what others expected. Some of those expectations also weren’t even mine to have. This is all where the idea of good enough really started coming in for me. Is the goal met? Did I represent the Department well? Did I negatively impact anyone along the way? Have I done good? Did I do well?

So, I’m trying. I’m trying to see where I can be more efficient, where I can temper expectations (of myself, mostly, but also of others), and where I can role model what that can look like to my team. Maybe every item for a program wasn’t delivered. That’s okay. You can still host a program that’s probably pretty impactful without all of the themed paper plates. Maybe someone forgot to bring over one of the items for an activity you were doing. That’s also okay. Being able to pivot is a necessary skill. Maybe a pilot initiative isn’t going the way we intended. It’s not bad, it’s just not, what was expected. 

Now, I see opportunities in the imperfections, in the challenges, in the things that go wrong or don’t go as expected. Maybe what’s happening instead is serving a different need. AND there are more opportunities to learn. Which I like even more than achieving, again, if we’re being honest here.

Now, I just start. I share the partial idea with the Team and see where it goes. I fold half the load of laundry and come back to it two days later. I open the blank document and start typing. 

So, here we are. Ready to submit this to post. I don’t think it’s perfect, but I think it’s (more than) good enough.

Sara Hazel McCoy
Assistant Director at Texas A&M University