All too often we want things to be perfect. We don’t share our work with others until we feel it looks polished. We set high standards for ourselves and inevitably fall short. We don’t start things because we don’t believe we’ll reach a standard we are happy with, or we spend hours trying to perfect something until we feel satisfied, but we rarely do.
So many of the messages we receive throughout our lives, whether consciously or unconsciously, promote this idea of perfection. It can affect so many areas of our lives from what we eat and what we wear, to how we feel about ourselves and how we view the world.
I’m reminded today that perfection doesn’t exist, and that striving to achieve it can result in stalemate.
I abandoned that idea of new year resolutions long ago, preferring instead to set goals I wanted to achieve over the course of year and new habits that would help me reach them.
Putting pressure on ourselves to change everything when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve often sets us up for failure. Being kinder to ourselves and setting more realistic expectations, is more likely to set us up for success.
And better to start the new year off on a more positive note than a negative one.
That said, I haven’t posted on here for a while as I wanted to make sure I had time to write the next post properly and take care that it read well, and if it was including theories and ideas, that it was well researched.
The pursuit of perfect lead to stalemate.
To move forward from that, and start the momentum of posting again, I’ve logged in, opened the WordPress site this is hosted on, and written this post. No planning, no drafting, just writing.
Perfect or not, it doesn’t matter.
Sometimes we just need to start. The longer we put things off, the harder it gets. It is better to jump in and see where it takes you, than overthink and find so many reasons not to.
This post was supposed to be about a YouTuber I’ve recently discovered who shares some wonderful advice on emotional regulation, mental fitness, and practical self-care habits, but I was spending too long trying to perfect it that I was neglecting the advice given.
So here we are. In 2025. It feels like opening up a brand new fresh, clean notebook and having so many pages to fill with thoughts, ideas and exciting projects.
And it is all there for the taking, but first we need to pick up the pen and write.
