Getting it done.

     I used to be a real estate agent. I liked certain aspects of being one, but what I really took away from the job was the expression: We got it done! The notion is that real estate deals are often hard to put, and hold, together. Both buyers and sellers think they're not getting a fair shake. Often they resent the real estate agents' commissions (I think they may have something there), and all kinds of things can go wrong to wreck the deal. Through it all the agents (for both the buyer and the seller) maintain a camaraderie, a bond—despite being on opposite sides—in hopes of completing the deal. It may be nerve wracking. It may be ugly. The deal may have been hanging by a thread. But when all is said and done and the deal finally closes, ahh, what sweet satisfaction to say: "We got it done!"
     And there are broader parallels.
     'Getting it done' disdains perfectionism. The notion that something has to be ideal before doing it doesn't fit in with getting it done. And getting it done is not a call to sloppily settling for a second-rate job. It is a call to being realistic. It is a call to live your life and not wait for some perfect moment, or situation or person to come along that will set the scene for the ideal achievement. No, it's about grinding it out with what you've got.
      Winners get things done. They're not standing on the sidelines waiting for the ideal moment to jump into the game. Winners are realistic. They know life is not about perfection. They know that (as the saying goes): "Life is a dance class for klutzes."
     So winners blunder forward, accepting imperfection and mistakes as the price for making progress. And that's just it—they know that it is progress and not perfection that is the goal. You won't find them expecting unrealistic results from life. Doing that is perfectionism and counter-productive. No, winners know that they are human and only capable of so much, and they accept that. And they know that they WILL make mistakes, and they accept that, as well.
     And this realism, this acceptance of the limitation that is part and parcel of being a human being, enables them, in fact, empowers them to "get it done."