You need to learn how to start saying no to things you do want to do, with the recognition that you only have one life.

Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks

Something a college mentor used to say, Don’t let the good get in the way of the best. But I think now that he was talking about maximizing my life, productivity, and dare I say, the definition of “best” was up for debate? (it was the 90’s after all. Productivity was king.)

I like that Oliver doesn’t put the judgment on the choice. It’s not the good and the best, it’s just stuff you want to do, and the realization that you cannot do it all, and that choices will need to be made. If not by you, then by someone else, so you may as well choose yourself. In this case, Best becomes, best for me, or what I think is best, rather than what some unnamed “they” say is best. They can be society, parents, and even, in my mentor’s case, God.

I am trying to remember what brought up the original conversation, the don’t let the good get in the way of the best. And from what I recall, the idea of best was really determined by leadership, not the individual. Interesting…