Getting to Good Enough

Janine and Shannon are experts in letting go. Janine helps people with tangible stuff and Shannon helps them with intangible stuff. So we have a lot to say in this episode about the benefits and process of letting go!

Discussion topics include:

• How January is a great time for letting go

• That Janine rarely, if ever, regrets having let go of something (and neither do her clients)

• How the various terms for decluttering process can change the way you feel about it--and the importance of finding the language that works for you

• How letting go of beliefs (like perfectionism) can allow you to open up space to do more of what you love

• A change to our podcast’s tagline!

• A deep dive into the process for letting of thoughts and beliefs that aren’t helpful 

• How your goals can help your underlying beliefs come to the surface

• The magic of thinking about your beliefs that might not be serving you and recognizing they’re not true

• The perfectionistic beliefs Janine had to let go of in order to start a daily yoga practice

Most people we meet have more clothes than they wear. When closets are crammed with unworn and unloved clothes, getting dressed is difficult. In this episode, Shannon and Janine talk about curating your closet so it's a pleasure to use and contains only clothes you love. This is a long episode--we just had so much to say!

Discussion topics include:

• How most people we meet have some sort of struggle with their clothes

• The domino effect of a crowded closet

• The benefits of having a one in/one out policy in your closet

• The joy and convenience of an uncrowded closet

* Project 333, the minimalist clothing challenge

* How Janine really likes wearing the same clothes again and again

* How Shannon had a uniform that she didn't love--until she went to Stasia's Style School

* Janine and Shannon’s recent (painless) closet clean outs

* Organizing clothes by color

* Folding shirts like Marie Kondo (which Janine has been doing for many years)

* How frequent travel can help you pare down your wardrobe

* Shannon’s patented DIY closet-clearing method

* Why all this matters and how perfectionism plays a part

Now that the holidays are over, it's a good idea to focus on taking care of yourself. This week Janine and Shannon discuss the importance of self care and what self care means for us.

Discussion topics include:

• The fact that self care means something different to everyone

• Shannon and Janine’s favorite self-care activities

• The joy of floating in a flotation tank

• The importance of creating time for self care (whatever that means to you)

• Shannon’s idea for making exercise feel like self care even when it usually doesn’t

• Taking away the barriers to taking care of yourself

• Making sure that your treats (like shopping) are actually good self care

• Quiet reading or nice walks as self care (Shannon)

• Crafting with friends as self care (Janine)

• How Janine and her brother practiced self care by gorging on pot stickers in Walla Walla

• Belly laughs as self care

Be sure and check out the podcast's website at gettingtogoodenough.com to see links to Janine and Shannon's belly-laugh videos!

We're taking the holiday week off! Instead of a new episode, we're presenting our very first episode, Done Is Better Than Perfect. Enjoy!

Our first episode! Shannon and Janine talk about a basic tenet of embracing good enough: the idea that done is better than perfect.

We talk about how getting started and finishing something--even if the result is less than perfect--is so much better than waiting for perfect to come along.

Included in the conversation:

• How perfectionism can keep you from getting started on a project.

• How being willing to make mistakes makes getting to good enough possible.

• Strategies for letting go of perfectionism and easing into good enough.

It's the end of the year and time to talk about goals and resolutions! In this Good Enough in Practice episode, Janine and Shannon talk about setting realistic, good enough goals. Way back in 2009, we created a teleclass and workbook about resolutions and we're revisiting it in this episode. (The messages of the teleclass will feel very familiar. They've stood the test of time!)

Discussion topics include:

• The details of Janine’s personal retreat day where she sets her goals for the coming year

• The perils of setting unrealistic goals and the alternative of good enough goals

• Flashback to a teleclass called “Why Resolutions Don’t Work and How to Get What You Want Anyway" that Shannon and Janine created in 2009. It's like a prequel to this podcast.

• The one element the teleclass has that this podcast lacks: Hypnosis!

• The three main problems that stop people from achieving their goals and how you can get past them to get what you want

• Janine's word for next year and how she plans to remind herself about it

• The hashtag we created: #goodenoughgoals

Exciting news! "Why Resolutions Don't Work and How to Get What You Want Anyway" has not been available for years, but now that we've discovered how relevant it still is, we're taking it out, dusting it off and renaming it! It's now called "Good Enough Goal Setting." 

We've updated the 25-page workbook for 2018 and are making it available to you for $15. When you buy the workbook, you'll automatically get a download of the 2010 teleclass, complete with guided hypnosis exercises led by Shannon, who is a certified hypnotherapist, to aid you in setting--and achieving--your goals this year.

Visit the show notes to purchase.

Like the dog in the movie Up who shouts "Squirrel!", we can so easily get distracted by new and exciting things. This week Janine and Shannon discuss Bright Shiny Object Syndrome and some strategies for resisting it as well as for harnessing it for good.

Discussion topics include:

•How easy it is to be pulled away by bright shiny objects (BSOs)

• Shannon’s 90-day plans that help her resist the BSOs

• The importance of having a system in place to take note of the BSOs so you can come back to them later

• Using Bright Shiny Object Syndrome to your advantage

• How Janine harnesses her penchant for BSOs by using Trello for task management

• Building BSOs into your plan for your day

• Identifying why you’re drawn to a particular BSO to help you modify your existing projects/systems to make them more attractive to you

• How being kind to yourself fits into the picture

The holiday season can be really hard on perfectionists, who often want to do it all and do it right. This week Shannon and Janine talk about making it easier for perfectionists to let the holidays be easy.

Discussion topics include:

• How “shoulds” can get in the way of enjoying the holidays

• Janine’s truly simple holidays

• Choosing the elements of the holidays that are doable

• The time-saving benefits of holiday cookie exchanges

• How the December holidays can be challenging for perfectionists

• How Shannon creates the holidays she wants (including this year’s Thanksgiving of giving)

• Embracing good enough to make holidays easier

• How giving clutter-free gifts helps the recipient and makes gift-giving easier

• A special clutter-free gift idea from special guest Miranda Adams, Janine’s niece

• Giving the gift of experiences or services, rather than stuff

• Choosing a theme word to capture the essence of what you want for the season to use as a guidepost to help you make choices

• Starting earlier on holiday tasks to avoid the stress of last-minute activities

It can be thrilling to finish something. But if a project is large, the thrill can feel like it may never come--especially if you're chasing perfection. In this episode, Janine and Shannon talk strategies for incorporating the thrill of done into any project so that you can stay happy and motivated while you try to get your stuff done.

Discussion topics include:

• What’s thrilling about finishing

• The challenge of building the thrill of done into large projects

• How to identify “done”

• Using a timer to help you feel done with something

• One technique for building done into an email purge

• How perfectionists don’t get to feel done if they’re trying to get to perfect (because perfect is impossible)

• Some wisdom from Harold L. Taylor on perfectionism

• The benefits of celebrating in the middle of the project 

• How breaking a task into small tasks (and calling each task done) can be motivating

• How Shannon and Janine apply the thrill of done to our genealogy research

Many people (especially perfectionists) feel like they're being more productive when they attempt to do multiple tasks at once. This week, Shannon and Janine discuss why the opposite is true.

Discussion topics include:

• The alluring temptation of multitasking

• That most multitasking is not actually multitasking; it's rapidly switching between single tasks

• Concurrent multitasking: activities that are possible to multitask

• Body doubling and how it can help in organizing

• The perils of driving while listening to podcasts

• Using ScreenTime on the iPhone to limit the distraction of technology

• Practicing being mindful as a way to combat multitasking

• Using a timer to stay focused

• How multitasking lowers your IQ (says a study)

• The truth about multitasking: You think you’re being productive and you aren't!

In this second "Q&A on the 5s" episode, Janine and Shannon answer some phoned-in questions from listeners.

Discussion topics include:

• How sometimes ease doesn’t come easily

• The perennial problem of perfectionism: It can feel uncomfortable to stop at less than 100 percent

• The discomfort of striving and failing to achieve perfection vs the discomfort of letting things not be perfect

• How Janine let go of a perfectionistic temptation to rewrite her client’s spice labels

• Practicing good enough on less consequential projects

• Revisiting tasks to make good enough better

• How Shannon gives herself permission to come back to a task, deeming it “good enough for now” which allows her to stop.

• The freedom of good enough