kelly: a recovering perfectionist

I almost didn’t take this picture.

These trees were a fiery red this fall, and I meant to put on makeup and a cute outfit and take pictures in front of the trees in all my #basic fall girl glory. But then it snowed. 

As I drove by while the snow melted, I noticed some of the leaves still hanging on, so I pulled over and took a quick selfie. No makeup, no planned outfit, and fewer leaves than before. Does any of this matter in the grand scheme of things? No. Does this picture even matter? Not really.

But this isn’t about the leaves. It isn’t about a silly picture to go with a Pumpkin Spiced Latte. This is about the idea that everything we do in life has to be picture perfect and wrapped up in a bow to show the world. Even our failures have to be pretty. We need to “fail forward” and show how we get back up again. The world can’t see us knocked down and so we don’t let ourselves get knocked down. 

I’m a recovering perfectionist who falls into this trap all the time. I wait to do anything because I want everything to be perfect. But guess what? Not everything will go perfectly to plan. Ever. If you wait for the perfect moment, you will miss out. I can’t think of many things I regret in life because I did them, and they didn’t turn out. I can, however, name a lot of times when I waited on the sidelines for the perfect moment, only for the game to end before I took my shot. 

What if instead of waiting for the perfect moment, we jumped in and did the thing? What are you waiting on in your life? Do you really need to keep waiting or can you jump in right now while there are still a few leaves hanging on for you?