Prisoner of Perfect

I wasn’t allowed to go outside and play with the other kids because I didn’t finish my assignment. I was in preschool and we were asked to count to 100. I was too afraid I wasn’t going to get it perfect. What if I missed a number? I couldn’t be proud of myself. I couldn’t say that I did it. If I didn’t do my homework perfectly how could I be proud of my work?

I find that this mindset continued. I couldn’t learn how to ride a two-wheeler with someone helping me because I couldn’t truly say I learned how to do it. It was someone else.

This mindset, as messed up as it may be, carried into my adult years. I believe many of you out there may struggle with this as well. If we don’t do it ourselves we can’t say we did it. Therefore, we don’t do the thing at all.

We become prisoners of perfect.

Something I have learned, and still have to work on, is letting people teach me. I have to let people help me. Sometimes you don’t get better at that. You just have to remind yourself that it’s for the best.

There’s a saying that I heard recently that I love. “Done is better than perfect.” That is what I try to keep reminding myself.