Perfect vs Excellent

Perfectionism is the enemy of learning and growing and enjoying areas of life where we haven't achieved mastery.  - Glynnis Whitwer


I have been reading a book that really focuses on understanding why people procrastinate so that we can then fight back.  The the chapter that I just read really hit home.  It was on taming perfectionist instincts.  The beginning of the chapter really made me take a look at how I've been viewing my IHC year recently.


Last fall we all set goals.  We started off in February full of excitement and possibility.  For me, I've had a couple of significant hurdles thrown into my year for me to try to maneuver around.  We all have had our own challenges to deal with, I know that I am not alone in this.  So here we are at the final stretch of the year evaluating where we are at.  If your anything like me, there are some goals that don't look like they may be fully achieved.  In my case there are many goals that are sitting in this state.  So what does that do to my motivation? 


I have been struggling to get motivated lately.  I think one of the main culprits is perfectionism.  I want to achieve all my goals.  This does not look like it may be possible, therefore my motivation to keep at it is inconsistent.  It is very easy to buy into the whole why bother mentality.  It makes it easier to push things off to tomorrow.


Instead of looking to be perfect, because seriously who can do that anyway, what if I looked at trying to be excellent.  Excellence is doing my best.  It is measured based on effort instead of purely on outcome.  It leaves room for me to learn and grow from my successes and my obstacles.  It leaves room to enjoy the journey even when it is not going perfectly as planned.  It leaves room to feel successful even if my goals aren't perfectly reached.  Excellence is placing the focus back on the journey instead of on the final outcome.  That simple change in mindset is what I need to embrace as I finish out the last few months of this year.


Here are my YTD totals as of the end of week 37:
Push ups             25,024
Sit ups                28,810
Kempo                  248
Staff                      355
Sparring                550
KM                       560.5
AoK                     714
Personal Goals:
Gratitude Journal  719
Piano                     48 hours
Books finished       20 
Daily fruit - 180 days
365 photo challenge - 136 days
Daily journal - 223 days