I would not consider myself a perfectionist, although there are certain tasks that I strive to perfect and work on tirelessly until it is just the way I like it. When I recently accepted my flaws and imperfections with something I had put together to share with others, it was a huge milestone for me.
All through high school and into college, whenever I had an essay to write, I went through a lot of paper as I would rewrite words, sentences, and paragraphs over and over again, countless times, until I was satisfied with what I had written. Any correction or change that I made along the way, from erasing to crossing out what I didn’t like or want to keep, I would start over with another sheet of paper and neatly rewrite everything out again. I wanted my rough draft to look like my final draft. In this area I was a perfectionist.
It was a tender mercy that in my third year of college, I had a roommate that helped me move away from writing essays in this fashion and encouraged me to put all of my thoughts and ideas out on paper first, even if I messed up or didn’t like how the essay was coming together, and then go through and edit afterwards. Since then, I have followed that recommendation. Even so, how and what I communicate to and with others through written messages and audio or video recordings is important to me. Hence, I spend a lot of time editing and trying to perfect how and what I say from rearranging sentences to finding the most fitting vocabulary words that best convey what is on my mind and in my heart.
Recently, when I was working on a project, it was incredible that in only three takes the the end result was perfect. I was super excited, however, a few hours later, I realized there was one major permanent error I had made that could not be erased, which meant starting it over again. In doing so, I could not replicate at all exactly what I had achieved earlier minus the error. After twenty plus takes to get it just right, it was a tender mercy that I accepted my flaws and imperfections and though it was not exactly how I wanted it to be, it was still good in a different way and I knew that no one else would know the difference except for me. Coming to that conclusion was big as I ceased expecting perfection of myself and spending more indefinite time on the endeavor when what I had completed was actually pleasing.
Not only that, it was a tender mercy that what helped solidify my having accepted my flaws and imperfections was an impactful statement I heard shortly thereafter about focusing on progress over perfection.
When have you accepted your flawed work as actually being pretty amazing irregardless of its imperfections?
tendermercym❤️ments~jld
“How have you noticed Heavenly Father’s awareness and mindfulness of you today?”
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