Enough and the concept of Finality

You know I never really thought of the word "enough" as much of anything, whether it be in life or in art. It was just a word, something to throw in the beginning or end of a sentence. "Enough, okay?" "I think you're good enough." I mean, everyone says it. And for most people, and the way it is commonly used, enough is essentially approval. Saying someone is good enough means they can get the job done. Saying someone is bad enough means they cannot.

However today I came to realize something about "enough," while in a devotional/ discussion. The word came up and while we were discussing, we were talking about being more than enough and that enough is actually something we base ourselves off of. I realized that it was more than that. It was not only a base, but it was a stopping point.

Think about it. If you're told you're "good enough," then you can just stop, right? It means you have reached the peak you were aiming for and no longer have to work for it. Similarly, when someone says "that is enough" they are also saying, "Okay let's just stop."

When I realized this, I realized that enough was not...enough. In today's world, we seek approval. Take the school system nowadays. Cheating is rampant in school, why? Not to learn, but to get the grade, to get approval to move on. People take their tests and get the average grade because it is "enough" to pass. People want approval to do almost anything, a serious hindrance to moving forward.

The great innovators were also the great renegades. The great theorists of humanity were very much so renegades in that they were revolutionists. To them, there was no enough. They never set a limit to themselves, and only stopped when nature and God said that they had to pass the torch on. Did they seek approval? Well, I mean, maybe, on a corporate level...but did Newton think that it was simply enough for things to fall just because? Did Galileo really let himself fall for the idea that the Earth was the center of the universe? To them, the answers they had were not enough. For others it was, and that was why it stopped.

If something wasn't enough, then it means the goal was not achieved. Obviously we all have goals we want to achieve, but, what then? What comes after the happily ever after, or is that just enough for us?

The truth of the matter is that there is an after the happily ever after and that the enough we reach today may not be the same we achieve a year later. It will be another goal to reach, and by all means, we must reach it. But we must go beyond.

To draw upon the world of the arts and storytelling, think about what the hero says after his/her first fight with the villain. "It wasn't enough," "I didn't fight hard enough," that kind of stuff. He/she sets a goal, but to be truly victorious, there is something else.

He/she has to be more than enough.

Not less than, and not just enough. The hero has to be able to defeat the villain and make sure they don't prove a threat again. For the hero, enough is simply not enough.

And in life, it isn't either. Great, you managed to get a "good enough." Isn't that a little degrading, though? You were only "good enough." Not excellent, not super, just good enough. You slipped by, you barely got through the door in one piece. Now what? Do you stop?

The big question we have to ask ourselves is: Is enough final?

When we reach the point of "enough," is it over? Are we at our happily ever after, or are we going to press onward and keep going forward.

For me, enough is not enough. There is always something to do, there is always something more that can be done. Particularly as a writer, there is always something. Be it a plot element, character element, a grammar or spelling mistake, something. Enough is not enough. I'm not asking for perfection, but what I look for is more than enough.

If enough were truly enough then we would never have gotten anywhere in life. Society is about competition, and if you get by on just enough, then that truly is a quick stop. We must strive to be more than enough, because there is something after the end.

And it is greatness. Once we go beyond "just enough," we can find how great we really are, we can tap into our true potential, the one we were born with. If we stopped at enough, we would never know the boundless possibilities. Settling for enough is similar to giving up halfway.

Enough is a stopping point, yes, but is it also a springboard to propel us into the land of our dreams and our imagination. Where we can choose to stop our efforts is where we can choose to start our real life.