The ultimate deadline is opening night. People have already bought tickets to whatever you are writing, rehearsing, choreographing, or constructing. There is no option to push back the deadline. There is no way to postpone the launch. There are people who have paid good money to sit in specific seats on a specific date and see your show. So you better figure out how to give it to them.

This is not to say we get it right every time. It’s also not to say that staying up all night in a dark theater in a flop sweat trying to solve the latest problem is the healthiest way of working on a project. But all of us – actors, playwrights, directors, designers, stage managers, technicians – we all have ingrained in us the universal rallying cry of theater people everywhere: “The show must go on!” It’s half time management, and half elbow grease, this ability of ours to make miracles happen within very strict timelines.

Next time you’re working towards a deadline and you start to think there’s no way you’ll finish in time, remember the costume designer sewing buttons until 2 AM. Remember the actor pacing the floor of his apartment in the pattern of his fight choreography. Remember the technician who stays after rehearsal to get on a ladder and re-hang lights because they aren't quite right. What will it take for your show to go on? How will you create magic with the resources you have?

I am not a person who wants to do work that’s “good enough.” I want to do work that’s Excellent, that Exceeds Expectations, that improves my life and the lives of those who come into contact with my work. Good Enough is not good enough for me, and it isn’t for you, either, if you are striving to have real impact in the world.
 
But I struggle sometimes to feel like I, as a human being, am Good Enough. Just as I am. With my flaws and my weaknesses. I’m worthy of success and respect and goodness, even though I’m imperfect. In this case, Good Enough is good enough. Good Enough is perfect. Good Enough is human.
 
Only when we accept ourselves as Good Enough are we able to make work that is more than Good Enough.

Are you ready to stop dreading performance reviews, critiques, workshops, and debriefings?
As promised, here are my 6 easy steps to receiving feedback:

1. Listen. Don’t interject. If you have a clarifying question, ask it. Otherwise keep your mouth shut.
   
2. Say “thank you.” If someone is giving you feedback, either you asked for their opinion, or they are offering it because they believe in you and they want you to succeed.
   
3. Write it down. All of it. The stuff that resonates, the stuff that makes no sense, the stuff that pisses you off, the stuff that affirms what you already believe. Write it all down accurately because, as much as it doesn’t seem like you will ever forget the feeling of receiving feedback (especially tough feedback), you will, and you’ll want your notes for reference.
   
4. Sleep on it. Or go take a walk. Don’t think about the feedback for a while.
   
5. Find what resonates. Look over your notes, and find the feedback that strikes a chord. This is an intuitive thing – an idea or a suggestion will stick out to you, your thoughts will catch on it like a sweater on a nail. Take note of these. This is the feedback that’s valuable.
   
6. Implement.
   

 
Let’s stop thinking of feedback as “positive” or “negative.” Let’s think of all feedback the way bats use sonar. It helps us position ourselves in the darkness. It informs our next move. It helps us navigate. If we can stop taking feedback personally, we can implement it more effectively.

There is a fine line between holding ourselves to high standards, and demanding perfection from ourselves. High standards are important; perfection is impossible. One of the ways that we measure our own performance is by comparing our work to the work of those we admire. Ira Glass has some smart things to say about that. The other way we measure our performance is by asking others how they think we are doing. And we all know what it feels like to have other people tell us how we're doing.

One of the things I learned at my small liberal arts college was how to receive feedback graciously, and how to make it work for me instead of against me. I’m grateful for all of those seminar-style classes, all of those writing workshops, where I had to read a rough draft out loud – a rough draft! a thing that’s not even a real thing yet! – and then listen as one by one the whole group shared their thoughts.
 
It is easy to get defensive and try to explain the choice you made. “Well, what I meant by that was…” It’s easy to shut someone down. “I don’t think you understand what I’m trying to say here.” It’s easy to dismiss opinions that don’t make sense to you.
 
It’s also easy to take feedback as god’s truth. “These people are smarter than me, they must be right.” It’s easy to doubt yourself. “Maybe I should go down this other path.”  It’s easy to feel like a failure, like you aren’t good at what you’re doing. Like you’ll never get it right.
 
The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

I have a tried and true method for receiving and processing feedback that I promise to share with you next week. Feedback can be such a helpful tool if we can get over our discomfort and take it in.