I'm not a millennial, but this resonates with me, too. One of the things I've learned about myself in the last few years in my mid/late 30s is being adequate at something can be really rewarding.the perception of perfection has resulted in lower confidence among millennials
I agree. At best, we can group eras, recognizing there is overlap throughout. I remember talk of the MTV generation, but I was a little too young to be in it. I'm also a little too old to be a millennial; I didn't get my first mobile phone until I was 23, a Nokia something. Economic and local differences further separate people. Was my older sister in the MTV generation when cable TV wasn't even offered in my small town? Probably a better way is to think of it as opportunities available or denied to people.
My therapist is having me focus on "Good enough is really good" this week. Rationally, it's perfect, but in my day to day, it's so alien.
My epiphany came after my first half marathon. My time would best be described as adequate. I finished. But it wasn't my own time that changed my perspective, it was going back to the finish line and watching the other runners. They were ten or twenty minutes after my already "adequate" time. They were so excited to finish. The crowd cheered. The race winner was probably 50 minutes ahead of me. They might have been home and showered before I finished. But just doing ok was a cause for celebration. The other runners didn't need to win to celebrate, and neither did I.
That depends though, doesn't it? When striving to create, "good enough" is essentially failure. Good enough might get you a paycheck, but it won't lead to satisfaction. If you're picking on yourself about relatively trivial things, then by all means stop. But in your work, your meaningful relationships, etc, good enough is far from good enough.