Good Enough

I have a confession to make.  I am a recovering perfectionist.  I have been a perfectionist for most of my life and quite frankly, I always thought this was a good quality to have.  During job interviews, I always listed being a perfectionist as one of my top attributes.  I prided myself on being a perfectionist and always having things done “just right”.  I liked to start every new year striving for perfection.

I would have never believed that this would be something I would need to recover from.  That I would eventually need to give up my grandiose ideas of being a perfectionist. 

Today is January 8^th.  How many of us have already “messed up” our New Year’s resolutions because we haven’t perfectly done what we set out to do?  I am guessing that it’s a good number of us.  How do I know that?  Because there is no such thing as perfection.  Perfection is an illusion, and we waste a good amount of time chasing it. 

I have been writing poems and stories for as long as I can remember.  I wrote my first book “The Dark Pony” when I was six years old.  I have had a passion for writing my entire life.  However, my quest for perfection, until now, had held me back.  I was petrified of letting people read my imperfect stories.  And, since I never thought they were perfect, I never did anything with them.  I put them in binders and stacked them in notebooks.  I saved them on the computer, but I never dared to share them.  My quest for perfectionism was keeping me stuck.

When I started my blog, however, I knew that I couldn’t strive for perfection any longer.  I was going to have to settle for good enough.  Because nothing was ever going to perfect in my mind.  Going from “perfect” to “good enough” was a huge step for me.  It was also a big relief.  The pressure of perfection is maddening.  Not to mention unattainable.

So, nowadays, I settle for good enough.  And that goes for everything.  My writing.  Working out at the gym.  My eating habits.  Not being locked into perfection means I have the freedom to be imperfect, to make mistakes, and to start over.  I have the freedom to be human.  I would much rather be published and good enough than always striving for the illusion of perfection.

So, if you’re like me, and you’ve already blown your perfect record for 2021, give yourself a break.  Have you blown your diet?  Pick yourself up and dust off the cookie crumbs.  Missed a day at the gym?  Breathe a sigh of relief, grab your tennis shoes, and just go for a walk.  Be happy that you don’t have to be a perfectionist any longer and join the good enough club.  I guarantee that if you have enough “good enough” days they will always outweigh the “perfect” days in anything that you do.  Because, as I said, perfection doesn’t exist anyway.

Here’s hoping you have a good enough 2021!