When “Good” Feels Not Good Enough

Last week, I shared a story about a landing I wasn’t entirely happy with. It sparked a surprising wave of kind, thoughtful messages and reminded me of just how beautiful and supportive this community is. So, first of all: thank you. Truly.

Reading through your responses, I realised something I think many of us experience, regardless of what we do for a living: we’re often our own toughest critics. Whether you’re a pilot, a teacher, a nurse, a parent, or anything else, we hold ourselves to high standards because we care. We want to do things well. We want to do them right.

In aviation, we’re used to being graded. At my airline, we’re evaluated across nine core competencies during training and checks. The scale goes from 1 to 5. 1 being excellent, 5 being a fail. It’s a structured way to measure performance, designed to help us improve and maintain safety. But it can also make every mistake, no matter how small, feel like a glaring flaw.

The landing I mentioned? If that had been part of a check, I would have graded myself a 3 – Good. We had crosswinds on final approach, and I held the correction a little too long. The aircraft touched down slightly off-centre, right main gear first. It wasn’t dangerous, it wasn’t a “bad” landing, but it wasn’t a 1. It wasn’t excellent.

And that stuck with me more than it probably should have.

But here’s what I’m learning (and re-learning): it’s okay for things to be “good” and not perfect. That drive for excellence is a strength but it shouldn’t come at the cost of kindness toward ourselves. We’re allowed to be proud of our work, even when it’s not flawless.

So, to anyone else feeling the weight of high standards, especially when you care deeply about what you do, you’re not alone. Sometimes “good” really is good enough.

And sometimes, being human is the best landing of all.

Lots of care and love 🫶

Maria

Happy Landings