I think it was a couple of years ago when I was reading CNN, that I was so infuriated and insulted by the number of spelling errors, typos, and missing words, that I actually sat down and wrote four separate comments to them complaining about how this kind of oversight was completely unacceptable from a professional news organization. (Yes, some of you might question my use of the words “professional” and “CNN” in the same sentence, but frankly, that argument is soo old… if true)

At the time, it seemed to be a fairly isolated occurrence, happening mostly on CNN who apparently were so harried to get the “news” out about Britney’s cooch that they couldn’t even take the time to proof. But the problem is spreading, and I admit, even to my own blog.

Is it that we’re lazy or that we’re simply typing more and at faster speeds? I think it’s a little of both. We’re certainly typing alot more content and at faster speeds. But with this technology—the ever forgiving backspace—we don’t really take the time to make each stroke of the keyboard count, because we don’t have to. It’s not like the old days when one typo meant retyping an entire page. Type, type, type and you’ll fix it later. It’s about the ideas, not the specific words, right? Another offshoot of our educational system’s philosophy of “close enough”. Like “close enough” builds bridges that don’t collapse.

So why don’t we try striving for better than “close enough”. Dare we say perfection? No typos, no missing words. Life’s rough, get a helmet, and be ready for criticism when you make a mistake. Not everything is “okay”. You CAN fail. You CAN do something wrong. You CAN be “not good enough”. But you can also be the reverse. You can be perfect, flawless, unflappable, accurate. Would you rather be good enough in a mediocre world, or successful in a realm of superior expectations?

God forbid we strive for something, instead of giving up before we even try. Set your sights high, and when you get there, it might actually mean something.