The Relentless Pursuit of OK

How striving for good enough makes life better.

I do many amazing things badly. These include running the New York City Marathon, playing Eddie Van Halen’s “Eruption,” and solving gigantic Rubik’s Cubes. Most people would be impressed. But look under the hood and you’ll discover the race took me seven hours, my guitar playing is intermediate at best, and my cube moves require the least amount of effort.

So what? Some guy running barefoot passed me at Mile 22 in Central Park, but the day was exhilarating and I saw cool parts of NYC. I’m not going to fill Madison Square Garden any time soon, but playing loud and fast is an incredible release. And people might gape spellbound as I solve a 7x7x7 cube on the subway, but the process is meditative and my commute flies by.

Apply the expression “Happiness = Reality/Expectations” and I score big points for sheer satisfaction, especially since I don’t try that hard. Focused on intrinsic enjoyment, challenging myself to the point of learning without actually mastering, I get the best of both worlds. I could run faster, play better, and solve smarter — but who really cares? What, exactly, is the point?

If I were obsessed with being the best, I’d never do any of these enjoyable things at all. Eliud Kipchoge recently finished the marathon in a world record 2:01:39, his average mile…