Good Enough For Today

At the beginning of the school year, this is an important phrase.

Tomorrow, we’ll have higher standards. Tomorrow, this won’t be good enough. But it’s good enough for today.

Ensembles necessarily grow, learn, mature, and evolve during a concert year. But too many performers, younger ones especially, tend to have inflexible ideas of what’s acceptable. That means trouble in two ways. Early in the year, they tend to be frustrated at not meeting their ideals, even as their leaders perceive the coming development. Later in the year, they might be frustrated with previously acceptable levels of excellence no longer being accepted.

By clearly saying “good enough for today” we can hope to short circuit both mindsets and create a positive energy that leaves room for the necessary future growth.