In November 2020, I set a goal to produce an audiobook of my book, Kill the Busy, Save the Bee: What It Really Means to Be Still and Know. I knew I had much to learn about audio editing, equipment, and technology, but I also knew that I had a great voice for it, and my husband was willing to help me. I wanted to have it ready and displayed on Amazon by the new year, 2021. We were both very optimistic.
With all this optimism, I set up my closet, printed out my script (chapters), and installed my microphone and software. From the very beginning of the process, I felt like I failed every single solitary day. I was such a disappointment to myself. All I could see were the mistakes I kept making and the deadline that kept creeping. I beat myself up for not working hard enough or not understanding the steps. The negative self-talk filled my mind, and I focused on it constantly. I couldn’t enjoy the journey because I could only see how slow I was, how terrible my voice sounded, and how many mistakes I kept making. I thought I was failing in motivation, learning technology, reading the script, editing, etc., but I wasn’t failing; I was winning.
Can We Skip to the Good Part?
The change of perspective came when I asked myself, "Do I want to impress people, or do I want to help people?" After some contemplation, I realized that I wanted to help people. This was confirmed by the Holy Spirit when I began to pray for His guidance. I took a break from recording and read His Word, which helped me regain my focus. I made a conscious effort to silence my critical voice and instead, spoke words of encouragement. Taking a step back, a time to reflect and pray, made a difference. I began to see the bigger picture instead of zeroing in on every flaw.
The Holy Spirit helped me regain my focus, and through reading His Word, I turned off the critical voice and turned on my encouragement voice. I began patting myself on the back and recognizing how much progress I was making! I thought to myself, "Yvonne, you've recorded five chapters. You're almost halfway there!" Instead of operating within the busyness of perfectionism, I started operating in the power of God's grace. I worked on it through Thanksgiving and Christmas, and if I started obsessing over a section that wasn't "perfect,” I’d say to myself, "That's good enough."
Let me explain the sentence, "That's good enough.” It doesn’t mean that I decided to slack. It was a way of training my perfectionist mind to extend grace. Each time I would record a paragraph or a chapter, I had to draw a line after a certain number of takes because I would ALWAYS find something wrong with it. Speaking out loud, “That’s good enough,” gave me permission to move forward with the understanding that I had done the best I could with what I had.
It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 12:9, which says, “But (the Lord) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” In this scripture, Paul explains how our weakness leaves room to boast, not about ourselves, but about God’s greatness. When we look at our mistakes, we recognize God’s grace, and so do others. His grace to pick us up when we fall down, His grace to encourage us, His grace to love us no matter how deeply we fall into sin, His grace to see the best in us and forgive us when we fall short.
When people listen to my audiobook, they don’t come back to me citing all the errors I heard while recording; they glorify God because what they’ve heard has encouraged them! When Jesus said, “My grace is sufficient for you,” I take that to mean He provides enough grace to sustain me through any difficulty and to cover me in every weakness.
So as you set out to accomplish what God has for you, remember:
Celebrate your progress, no matter how small.
“That's good enough!”
Give yourself some grace.
Turn on your encouragement voice.
Yvonne Marie, M.Ed. is the author of Kill the Busy Save the Bee: What It Really Means to Be Still and KnowandWrite For Christ Sake: A Guide to Kick-Start Your Book Journey for Jesus. She is the owner of Your Book Journey Consulting, LLC, a thriving business on a mission to help writers, speakers, ministry leaders, and business owners write and publish books. With a master’s degree in education and over two decades of teaching and ministry experience, she has developed the ability to effectively educate, motivate, and inspire others through her gifts of writing, speaking, and teaching. Yvonne Marie is married to Jonathan, owner ofI-Witness Photography, LLC, and they have two sons. You can find her atyvonnemariespeaks.com.
That's Good Enough