At first glance, the words “The best is the enemy of the good” seem illogical: the more of this “good” and the higher its quality, the better! But our ancestors had something in mind - they repeated these words generation after generation! And, probably, you can find common sense in them too.
Too much is good, too bad
This expression partly explains the first saying. And if it seems to someone that there is never too much good, it is enough to recall the tale of the Golden Antelope: in it, a greedy raja caught a wonderful antelope and made it knock out gold coins with its hooves (the magic animal had such an ability). There was only one condition: as soon as the Raja said "Enough!", All the gold will turn into clay shards. The story ended sadly for the self-confident and greedy rajah: he was covered with gold to the very top, and he was forced to ask the antelope to stop - as a result, he died under a pile of clay shards.
Likewise, a person in everyday life, who does not know how to limit his desires, eventually becomes a hostage of the situation, because any benefit received from life requires "reckoning": you get a high position and a good job - be ready to work much more and devote less time to your family and your hobbies, if you want fame - get ready for scandals and gossip around your person, etc.
In addition, any good that has become everyday turns into a routine, ceases to please and excite, and, in the end, becomes boring. To understand this, it is enough to cook your favorite dish every day and eat nothing but this food. How soon will she get bored
Ups and downs, failures and victories - this is what makes life emotionally rich, brings variety to it, makes a person solve new and new tasks, and therefore develop.
They do not seek from goodness
Another saying, the meaning of which explains a lot. It would seem that having achieved something in life, a person realizes that this is not the limit, that there may be something else better and more than what he has.
But it is far from always worth giving up what has already been achieved for the sake of an illusory goal. Remember another expression "A tit in the hands is better than a pie in the sky"? In achieving goals, striving for this, it is worth assessing how much the resulting gain will be more significant than what you have to give up?
Yes, sometimes both risk and sacrifice are justified, but it also happens that the goal turns out to be unattainable, and those resources and treasures that a person had are irretrievably lost …
Work for the future
And one more explanation of why the best is the enemy of the good can be found if you study books on psychology. And life experience will confirm the theory of psychologists. Often a person, achieving a goal, does not feel satisfaction from the result, but emptiness and even disappointment. There may be several reasons for this:
- too much effort wasted on the way to the "top";
- the result was not as impressive as expected;
- the goal has been achieved and there is nothing more to strive for.
It is the last reason that oppresses a person most of all: it turns out that he experienced more joy when he walked towards the goal, achieved intermediate results, i.e. had "good". And when he reached the "best", he realized that there was no where to go further.
Sometimes the goal and its achievement are not important initially, and a person simply enjoys the process of activity.
To prevent this from happening, it is not bad, when setting goals, to think: what prospects does their achievement open up? What can you do next with this result? And then the reached peak will become not an end point, but a step in order to move on.
