Why Not Adequate?
A phrase I hear sprinkled throughout a lot of ADF material is, "Why Not Excellence?" I think I get the idea behind it - it's supposed to be ✨inspiring✨. Our Kindreds surely deserve our best efforts. No argument there.
Buuuuut if you tend to be a Type A, anxious, overachieving, trying-desperately-to-overcompensate-for-my-undiagnosed-ADHD sort of person (not that I know anyone like that...) striving for excellence can be paralyzing.
And it turns out, feeling paralyzed is not very conducive to actually getting your DP work done.
I recently ran across a post on the ADF Discord where a very wise person said, "Think of the DP as a snapshot that you tried out the ADF-druid style of doing things. Each essay is a thumbnail image that highlights a bigger experience and reflects a contribution to a larger personal practice."
Did you hear that, guys? Snapshot! Highlights!
You mean, I don't actually need to cram every single bit of knowledge or insight I have into every piece of my Dedicant Path work? 😳
What I realized is, my Dedicant Path reviewer doesn't need to know every single thing I know about Druidry. They don't need to be blown away by my hot takes on the High Days. (These holidays have been around for literally millenia... how many hot takes can there be at this point anyway?) They probably would appreciate my sticking to the word count limit, because this is a volunteer job and maybe they need to walk their dog or something.
They just need to know that I get the gist of this ADF Druidry thing.
Done is better than perfect. Adequate work that gets turned in is better than excellent work that just lives in your head. Half-assed is better than no-assed!
So c'mon, Dedican Path friends...let's just take the risk and do the thing adequately! If we swing for adequate and miss, the worst thing that can happen is our reviewer will point out where our work isn't up to snuff and we'll swing again. And who knows, maybe some of those swings will turn out to be excellent anyway. Only one way to find out.
Thoughts about my thoughts? I would be happy to receive them via email at knitonmycat@gmail.com, or you can find me on Discord: knitonmycat0809.