Brenda, my wife and photographer for this blog reminded me after my March 2025 post, we’d crossed the 5 year threshold with getting out these musings of mine. It hardly seems real.
I’ve received encouragement along the way from some of you to keep going, I appreciate you for it too. I wasn’t as constant in my writing and posts as in recent months, but I’ve grown into some measure of consistency.
When Brenda reminded me of this milestone, it gave me a sense of accomplishment. There are those who are way better at this “being consistent” stuff than me, however the lessons I’ve gleaned are certainly noteworthy.
I was being a perfectionist. This kept me from being steady as a writer and posting monthly. I was always struggling with either the subject matter, worrying about repeating myself, or being concerned with who would be interested in my writings or not. Somehow, I was able to shake that period and just write and little did I know, that in doing this over time I would get a breakthrough!
My mind broke free of the notion that every post needed to be a Pulitzer!
There is something beneficial in repetitiveness over time, particularly when it comes to things that make us better and who wouldn’t want to be better, right?
Perfectionism. It’s like a hangnail: it snags almost everything with fabric until remedied. Perfectionism gnaws at the brain, searching for better, looking for “the best possible” when that may have already been achieved through excellence. Excellence is about quality, perfectionism is refusing to accept anything lower, based on one’s own idea of perfection, perfection is personal.
While there’s nothing wrong with improving on something one believes could be better, and doing it in an exemplary way, it needs to ultimately have a conclusion…a finality rather than a mental torment that keeps one from moving forward.
If not careful, perfection can be a prison from creativity and progress. It can be a place of unrest rather than discovery. There has to come a time or place that says; ‘I’ve done my best with this’, next time I can expand on it, or maybe to even learn and grow from it. When a perfectionist turns it loose….this opens the door to freedom and growth.
Once it’s done correctly and in the best quality way, it should be over….correct? After all, what can be better than the best possible? This is probably how the “A+” concept started. You go from “A” to “A+” to “A++” now the guy who received the “A” feels like a failure because of an imaginary expectation of 2 additional ”’+” signs after the ”A”, which wasn’t really necessary, only maybe to express elation rather than achievement.
Sometimes there are voices inside the mind that pushes one past what is acceptable to a loving heavenly Father. The voice may sound like a mother, a father or a teacher’s voice. It may be the voice of a coach, a classmate from years gone by, perhaps a coworker. If these voices push us into something other than wonderful and balanced achievement, it may not be the healthiest voice to adhere to.
So here’s to another 5 years of consistent writing and postings. I hope you stay on board with me on this journey, you are a strong inspiration in why I do it.
No more perfectionism.
anablepsis.