That'll do Donkey .... That'll do!
In certain situations the majority of us would never accept the 'near enough' or 'that'll do' approach .... Just imagine the engineer who says, '88, 89, 90 degrees - it's all the same' - or the heart surgeon with the same kind of attitude - or the helicopter pilot who asks 'what checklist?' Clearly, there are times and situations where we expect, even demand, the very highest of standards. Which situations? Those situations that are very critical or important to us. So if something is very important to us, we need to approach it with a different set of standards. Attention to detail is everything when it comes to developing expertise and setting standards of excellence. If our training is important to us, we should as much as possible try to apply the highest set of standards we can. We should develop a taste for nuance, a habit of attending to every detail and unceasingly trend toward the best possible practice.
Of course, this requires effort ... mental effort as well as discipline. There may be many things that just arn't that important to us and that don't require that level of effort but for those things we deem to be important We should create the habits of deep attention, deliberate practice and mindful analysis. The development of expertise, in anything, is largely shaped by our habits and approach to our practice. JBW
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