Tiny Wisdom: Peacefully Imperfect

“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” -Voltaire

Last week I got sick. Really sick. Head-spinning, stomach-retching, body-trembling sick, and just before the holidays, while visiting my family.

I completed a radio interview for my book through a brain fog so thick my thoughts felt trapped in quick sand. Needless to say, I got behind with freelance work, and come Christmas Eve, I hadn’t yet prepared anything for this week on the site.

Since I knew the next several days would be busy, with holiday festivities, wedding dress shopping with my engaged sister, and last-minute get-togethers with friends before I return to California, I realized that morning was my last chance to prepare three days worth of content.

So I decided to focus solely on what’s important: preparing the blog posts other people had previously submitted. Usually, I spend a great deal of time looking for the “perfect photo” to go with each post—but I decided instead to find a good one and go with it.

I generally go through each post and insert multiple links back to other posts on the site. But I decided to skip that too since it wasn’t completely necessary.

These details may seem inconsequential from an outside perspective, but for me, they fall under the umbrella of the “right way” to do things—and oftentimes my perfectionism tells me it’s that way or nothing.

It’s a limiting way of operating that does nothing but create unnecessary stress, and yet it takes a conscious effort for me to fight this perfectionist instinct.

Ironically, you as a reader may not even have noticed the things I didn’t do if I didn’t point them out—which is just another reminder that generally speaking, we are the only ones who know how things “should” be or look. Sometimes the best thing to do is do our best and resist the urge to judge it.

So today, on the tail-end of this sickness I’ve been struggling to shake, I share with you this, my highly imperfect blog post. It didn’t involve deep thought or research. I didn’t spend a ton of time self-editing this.

And yet, as always it’s my truth. I’ve decided that’s good enough.

Wishing you a peacefully imperfect day and the capacity to recognize and appreciate the good.

Photo by Two Roses

About Lori Deschene

Lori Deschene is the founder of Tiny Buddha. She started the site after struggling with depression, bulimia, c-PTSD, and toxic shame so she could recycle her former pain into something useful and inspire others do the same. She recently created the Breaking Barriers to Self-Care eCourse to help people overcome internal blocks to meeting their needs—so they can feel their best, be their best, and live their best possible life. If you’re ready to start thriving instead of merely surviving, you can learn more and get instant access here.

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