.Progress over Perfection.

Don’t we all know that perfection is a condition experienced by many, exasperated by social media, and just causes frustration, procrastination, low self-esteem? If left untreated, it may lead to sadness, lack of purpose, and constant questioning featuring too many what-ifs?

I’ll do this after I do that. I’ll get to it once this happens. I can’t start this until this is perfect. Many times perfection got in my way of starting or doing something new. I used to think if I cannot do it perfectly or under the perfect circumstances, I simply do not see the point.

Perfection has made me procrastinate the bigger things like for example moving back to Germany, re-designing my blog, writing a business proposal, choosing a daily meditation to practice or the smaller things like planning my day off. Sometimes if I could not decide on the perfect plan for my day off, I would just end up staying at home or running errands instead of doing something awesome.

Everyone defines perfect differently and we all have varying levels of personal standards of perfection. I personally believe and think it is fair to say that perfection is an illusion just as social media is an illusion. It is mostly curated, edited, airbrushed montage of just a tiny facet of someone’s life. So, based on this concept, that perfection is an illusion, perfection does not exist. Sometimes people, and I include myself here, get caught up in living in a non-reality when life usually revolves mainly around the superficial things like status, money, job or to-do lists. Living in reality means connection with others, accepting myself the way I am, and feeling emotions; even the dark ones.

Progress over perfection.

The right moment may never come but sometimes it is important to just do what feels right even though it is not perfect. When I chose to make progress, move forward, and take action, that’s when I achieved my goals. It is simply letting the walls of perfection fall to reveal something so pure and unique to me. It is also about loving and believing in myself enough to trust that whatever I create is not perfect but it is real. And my best self is created from this space of honesty.

It is very easy to get caught up in the comparison of what everyone else is doing and then need to feel accepted. But what actually happens is everyone does the same thing and the perfection bug actually causes repetition. Many of my friends had to listen to me talking about moving to a particular city for months now but I wanted it to be perfect. Then I got to the point where I had to just take action and go or I would be waiting forever. This move won’t be that easy but manageable. I don’t think no major move really is but this experience will teach me to live here and now, and to actually do the things I talk about doing someday. Simply because, like perfection, someday does not actually exist. So, I signed the lease to my new apartment. It felt good to finally do it. Once it was all done, the pressure was off and having done it, I now feel inspired to finish it off.

The next time you are about to put off anything because you are scared it won’t be perfect, remember that progress is more important than perfection. It is okay to clean my kitchen just a little bit, let my dad work on my new vintage furniture because he knows what he is doing, apply for that Ph.D. without re-reading the application fifty-thousand times. Oh, and starting my new essay can wait as well as the laundry because I have to catch up with a very good friend who wants to make pizza with arugula, Proscuitto, and cheese. I will get a bottle of wine. I promised, didn’t I? Just be imperfectly you.



2 thoughts on “.Progress over Perfection.”

Leave a Reply to Daniela Henry Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


Follow by Email
LinkedIn
Instagram