I spent most of last week being disappointed in myself, and so it shouldn’t be a huge shock that come Saturday… I was so ready for the week to be over. 

I just hadn’t done enough. 

I told myself that next week I had to buckle down and do more. 

But here’s the problem with that entire line of thought… ‘enough’ and ‘more’ are goals that are just begging for another Saturday of disappointment. 

What is ‘enough’?

How much ‘more’? 

I can do ‘more’ but still have it not be nearly ‘enough’. That happens all the time. 

I was talking to someone about this last week during office hours… that so much of life is about managing expectations… and so much of finance is about the question of ‘enough’. 

How long did I walk around assuming that the answer to all of my financial problems was more money? 

And still, I end every week assuming that ‘more work’ is the one thing that I need to do in order to be more fulfilled. 

But it’s not… at least it’s not in a vacuum.

More is great, more than enough is even better… but it’s absolutely useless if you don’t have an idea of what enough is.

What’s your enough? 

At this point I feel like I’m writing a terrible version of an E.E. Cummings poem: more is the lesser of less’s enough…. so let’s cut the poetry and bring on the prose…

• How much money would be enough to get you through this month? Do you know?
• How much money would be enough to float you through the whole year…?
• How much do you need in the next 5 years? 

I used to answer all of these questions with a laugh and a snide… ‘more than I have right now’….

But now I have real numbers, and so I know when I’m making enough… and when I’m not. I know when it’s been a good week, and when it’s been a bad one. I know when I need to cut back, and when there’s actually some extra money to spend on fun stuff.

I don’t know how to do that with my weekly workload yet. 

My work attitude is still the blanket pursuit of more: more writing, more work, more contacts, more social media reach, more traffic, more income. 

…and more disappointment at the end of every week when I fall short of a finish line that keeps moving further down the road. 

Thought for the week…

If more money were the solution, than doctors, lawyers, and investment bankers would be the most financially stable people on the planet. 

They’re not. 

Many of them have the same problems that we in the creative class have… they don’t have enough. 

And they never will until they figure out what ENOUGH actually is. 

This week I want you to think about how much is ‘enough’ for you. What does it mean financially? What does it mean for your weekly work? However that question rings true for you….

Have a great week.