Learn by Doing

Although I wrote before about breaking my ties with perfectionism, it's still something that permeates my daily life. I'm more aware of it, for sure, and sometimes even have the strength to combat it. Most days, I have to I remind myself it's okay to sometimes be content with "good enough" instead of "perfect," to see life as more of a journey of progressing towards my goals than always having to do a stellar job at everything, to extend myself some grace for my mistakes, and to try new things. Today's post from Anne at Modern Mrs. Darcy hit home for me, as she talked about her own struggles with perfectionism. She suggests adopting an outlook of learning by doing, seeing any outcome as a success, instead of setting yourself up for failure by expecting perfection at every turn. In a practical sense, this kind of approach looks like not agonizing over decisions, paralyzed by fear of making the wrong choice, but being willing to experiment with things, knowing they may or may not work out, and that's perfectly okay. Maybe that's really what we should be aiming for anyway-- perfectly okay. Not perfect, but perfectly okay. Perfectly imperfect. Perfectly genuine. Perfectly human. Perfectly beautiful in all our flaws.

I could try to paraphrase Anne's words, but I wouldn't do them justice. Take a moment and head over to her blog to read her encouraging entry about banishing the need to be perfect. You'll find yourself nodding in agreement as you read about accepting mistakes and failure, a much healthier approach to life, and be both uplifted and challenged to revamp your approach to life by the end. Enjoy!