No one ever mistakes me as a patient person. Never. I don’t know why everything didn’t happen yesterday, but I also have high standards. Trust me, the desire for perfection and quick results is a tricky recipe to execute. I stand in front of the microwave, beg it to hurry, and am constantly disappointed by an abysmal dinner that looks nothing like the picture. I force myself to remember the adage about the three kinds of service. It can be good, cheap, or fast. The catch is you can’t have everything. Good and Cheap, won’t be Fast. Cheap and Fast won’t be Good, and Fast and Good won’t be Cheap.

Life is a balancing act, a decision-making exercise. Is this a champagne occasion, or will water suffice? Do I imagine the item I’m creating will endure for generations, or does completing a task and removing it from my To-Do list make me jump for joy? My Achille’s heel is I have a quality gene running through my DNA. No matter what logic tells me, my heart never wants to settle for second best.

The struggle extends to my writing sessions. I believe every word matters, phrases should be beautiful, and I should convey ideas, thought processes, and information in ways designed to inspire readers. I can spend hours editing, polishing, and analyzing every nuance in a few hundred words. I want to create masterpieces. But I also want to complete the piece and send it on its way. In my world, there are deadlines, projects competing for my attention, and a limited window of productivity before my body shuts down and requires sleep. So, I take a deep breath, deem it good enough, and hit the publish button.

How do you balance Good, Cheap, and Fast?

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Keep on writing.

Jo Hawk The Writer