{my tips} progress > perfection

{enjoying a simple breakfast with a side of blogging}

Lately, in my hometown, following a few shocking tragedies involving teenagers and suicide, there has been a lot of discussion about the pressure to be perfect. You know, the high expectations our parents, school, and we put on ourselves. There is the idea that if I can just do this or just be good enough everything will be okay. 

As more and more people around me are talking about this, I can’t help but think of my own experiences. If you did not know, I struggled with this pursuit to reach perfection in the form of an eating disorder. (Check out my story here). I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to prevent someone I know from feeling so hopeless they need to turn to self-harm or even suicide. I have been thinking about how to keep a balance between striving for success and pursuing perfection. 

For about two years or so, I have been recovered and through my recovery taught myself how to strive for success without feeling the need to be perfect. Today, I wanted to share a few of my thought processes and kind of how I stay motived to do well without slipping back into the race for perfection. I am by no means saying I have it all figured out and never struggle because I still do occasionally.

-Keeping the end in mind.

This is such a hard thing for me. I try to get myself to look more at the end picture and less at the pieces of today. When your taking that test, it seems like how you perform effects everything. Thinking like this causes a lot of stress and pressure which actually has negative effects on your performance. I try to keep things in perspective, will this change how next week goes? or next month? or next year? Surprisedly, most of the time the answer is no. 

-Enjoying life.

There is so much for to life than textbooks and training. A big part of my recovery was learning how to relax and take breaks. When everything you do is something productive, you get overwhelmed and start not being able to perform as well. The past few years, I have really come to appreciate and understand the need for rest. There is absolutely wrong with the occasional lazy day. 

-Focusing less on numbers.

This goes for everything, whether it be weight/eating or school or anything. Numbers can be haunting. When using numbers as a benchmark, it is easy to feel like a failure. I try to focus more on trying my best and accessing the outcome based on things other than numbers. This may sound foolish but it has really helped me. For example, I no longer weigh myself. I base my “fitnesses” on how I feel. 

I am not sure this post will be meaningful to everyone or even most people, but I just feel like these things needed to be said. We live in a world that can easily consume us with standards and expectations. It breaks my heart that these pressures can lead us to do some pretty terrible things. I hope that this post, even if it’s just for one person, shed some light into this overwhelming, stressful experience we call life.