Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Enemy of the Good

“Don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.” – Voltaire
This quote has become my mantra in area after area of my life. It started with all those phone calls and thank you notes I was supposed to write, but only managed to finish half or send a quick email instead. Then it was when I was having people over for dinner or a get together, and I just tidied up the messiest areas and put everything else in our pit of a back room. These days, I find myself saying it every day. About almost everything.
Once upon a time I was a perfectionist – and then life just caught up with me. I realized that if everything I did had to be just so, I wouldn’t get anything done. And whatever I did get “done” would never really be completed – I’d just keep picking at it until it made me insane. I’d like to have the luxury of perfection, and I do reserve it for some things, but mostly it’s just too much. It’s like there’s a time in all our young lives when we have all the time in the world to make everything just so. Then time swarms up behind us and pushes us forward until we’re moving so fast that we only have brief moments to recapture that feeling of when we think we have all the time in the world to make everything just the way we want it. I don’t know about you, but I use those brief moments to play computer solitaire.
I don’t really want to talk about weight loss that much. Let’s just say that this week was spent in overindulgence. Tracking food? Working out? Uh, well…. Don’t worry – I’ll be back to it tomorrow full time. That’s when I’m headed back to reality and home. A big part of me is really eager to get back on schedule. But another part of me is so happy to have had some time to waste. Yes, waste. Time that wasn’t scheduled, or tracked, or missed, or stressed about, or spent doing something I didn’t want to do. I just luxuriated in being able to not think about it. I may regret it tomorrow or the next time I get on the scale, but for the moment it was worth it. I just stopped thinking about perfection entirely. It felt really, really good.

3 comments:

  1. It does feel good, doesn't it? *sigh* I'm right there with you getting back on track though. We can do it! :)

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  2. We're all in this together and fresh starts are always good! Welcome back to the track!

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  3. This quote speaks to me Maude. I'm definately a perfectionist through and through

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