Don't Let The Perfect Be The Enemy of The Good
Well, this last week was a doozy, but I'm back and ready to start a new week off on the right foot.
I would consider myself a recovering perfectionist. Most days, I try to do my best to handle my life without being overly fixated on doing everything just right. I'm not an obvious perfectionist…my house isn’t perfectly tidy and clean and I don't look like I always have my life together. But, I'm the type that resists starting something if I feel like I won’t be able to do it exactly right. I fret about it not being good enough. I’m sure many of you struggle with the same feelings.
So, how is a perfectionist supposed to handle living a healthy lifestyle while maintaining balance?
I love the Voltaire quote “the best is the enemy of the good”. I think of that concept often. Especially at this very moment, since I wrote up this entire blog post and then it just evaporated!! Rookie mistake. So, I walked away from the laptop and focused on something else for an hour to let myself cool down and start all over again. Perfectionism makes me keep thinking about all the words I wrote and lost and how this second version won’t be as good as the first and how I might be late posting. But, done is better than not done. Good is better than procrastinating till we get things “perfect”. Just keep moving forward. It’s a lesson I keep relearning every single day.
So, when it comes to health and wellbeing, we have a lot of influencers and the internet in general telling us we are going to die if we don’t do all the things and if we don’t commit to doing them perfectly and consistently. But, that added stress and worry of what all we should be doing stops many of us from even taking the next good step in our lives. We seize up. Or we say “Forget it, what is the point of trying if there is so much I’m supposed to be doing to stay healthy. I may as well just eat the Cheetos and binge watch my favorite show till 1 AM.” Believe me…I get it.
How about instead of trying to be perfect (which isn’t possible for any of us anyways), we strive for good? How does that look in our day to day lives, when it comes to health and wellness?
Instead of falling into a pit of dispair over breaking down and serving our family chicken nuggets, french fries and green beans one night after a very busy day, because we know ultraprocessed foods are very bad for us…why not try looking for a few convenience foods to have on hand that have fewer ingredients that you can actually pronounce and use those in a pinch? Maybe you serve organic chicken nuggets with frozen organic peas and the fries aren’t full of sketchy oils and artificial flavors.
Or maybe you feel like you just can’t afford to buy everything organic, but you wonder if it’s even worth it to buy veggies that have been sprayed with Roundup. With the skyrocketing food prices, this is a very real problem for many of us. Hear this…eating whole, real, minimally processed foods will always beat eating ultraprocessed, manmade, chemical laden, fake food. So, buy the real meat, vegetables, and fruit. It will still serve you and your family and you will probably save money over a lot of the conveinience foods anyways.
Another way to address this problem is to look for the “Clean 15” and “Dirty Dozen” lists. Every year new lists are released showing the produce that is the least sprayed with chemicals and therefore safe to buy the conventional version (non-organic) and that list is called the “Clean 15”, the other list is the “Dirty Dozen” AKA the highest pesticide sprayed produce. Save money by following those lists and either avoiding the dirty dozen altogether or buying those only when you can find them organically grown.
Maybe you struggle to keep a workout routine and you know that you should be doing some cardio and lifting weights for your long term health. Instead of throwing in the towel and deciding it’s just too hard to manage, as I have in the past. Try to slowly build up to a sustainable routine, starting with walking daily. If you miss a day, don’t beat yourself up. It happens, just keep going. On a day where you know you won’t be able to squeeze in a workout, build movement into your day as best you can. Walk as much as you can when you do your errands or housework. Play a physical game with your kids or take them on a walk around the neighborhood. Flex your calves under your desk at work and get up and move at least every hour.
What if you just don’t have time to take a 30 minute soak in the tub, get a massage, and spend an hour meditating? That’s ok! Maybe all you can manage is 5 or 10 minutes to yourself, where you take a few deep, cleansing breaths, read a scripture, and feel some gratitude for the good things in your life. That is still going to make a difference!
Many of us know that we are being innundated with toxic chemicals in nearly every area of our lives. That can cause a state of panic that isn’t healthy and makes it really tough to live a peaceful life in this world. Instead of painicking and replacing everything you own, try to look at the areas in your life that might affect yourself and your family the most and do your best to upgrade those things as time and money allow. This is also the reason that I try to do a seasonal functional medicine liver detox quarterly. Our livers were not designed to process all these toxins. It puts my mind at ease to know that I’m aiding my body in releasing the toxins I do come in contact with on a daily basis.
I’m often surprised at how those little things really do add up. Like going out and picking daffodils with my little boy and putting them in a mason jar on our dining table. Those bright, cheerful, yellow flowers make me smile every time I’m in the kitchen.
So, don’t let perfect be the enemy of the good! Small steps matter. Good is good enough. And tomorrow you may find that you have the capacity and the confidence to do better because you didn’t spend today beating yourself up for not doing enough.
Let me know in the comments if you like getting little tips like this and areas where you feel like you struggle. Have a beautiful day!!
