Lessons from the nest part 1: why change doesn’t have to be perfect
For the last few weeks, I’ve been keeping a close eye on a swans’ nest in the Water of Leith, not far from my offices in Edinburgh. I’ve been fascinated by the comings and goings of the adult swans, and eagerly awaiting the day when the nine eggs would hatch. It’s also given me the perfect excuse to spend some time away from my desk each day and enjoy the fresh air.
After weeks of diligent observation, my patience was finally rewarded and I got my first sighting of the baby swans. Nine eggs became eight cygnets, which is pretty good going. Apparently, the parents will work together to look after the little ones for a full year before they’re ready to make their own way in the world, so luckily I’ll get to watch their progress for some time yet.
The nest itself is built mostly from sticks and twigs, but the swans have also taken advantage of odd bits of rubbish and plastic that they found. It might not be the prettiest nest and it might not have been built in the most scenic spot, but the swans worked hard to provide a safe and comfortable home for their family from whatever was available to them at the time.
This got me thinking that we can all learn something from those swans in the context of our own lives. Sometimes, when we want to create change, it can be all too easy to get caught up in the details. We put obstacles in our own way by telling ourselves that everything has to be in place and perfect before we can move forward. But that’s not the case.
The swans understood that the nest didn’t need to be perfect in order to keep those eggs warm and safe until they were ready to hatch (which is why they built their home from whatever was available, including random bits of rubbish), it just needed to be good enough. There are so many other examples of this in nature - from green shoots pushing their way defiantly up through cracks in concrete paving, to urban foxes surviving and thriving on our household food waste.
When we’re faced with change - whether it’s something intentional that we’re trying to create for ourselves, or we’re dealing with unexpected or unwelcome change that life has thrown at us - we could all take a leaf out of nature’s book. We don’t have to wait until everything is perfectly in place before we can move forward. If you’re not convinced, just think about those baby swans and their perfectly imperfect nest. Change can be messy. It can be imperfect. It can even have some rubbish bits in it. But that shouldn’t stop us from moving forwards with our lives, because sometimes “good enough” is, well, good enough.
