It’s Perfectly Okay Not To Be Perfect

Whether your project isn’t exactly going well. Or you’re not putting in 100% effort at work because your cat just died. Or you’ve spent the last 8 months living with an overwhelming sense of dread that this conversation with your mom might be the last you’ll ever have with her because she’s just that sick.

Whether your project isn’t exactly going well. Or you’re not putting in 100% effort at work because your cat just died. Or you’ve spent the last 8 months living with an overwhelming sense of dread that this conversation with your mom might be the last you’ll ever have with her because she’s just that sick. 

Know this, Story Quester,
it’s perfectly okay not to be perfect.

In fact, we should take the whole concept of perfectionism, crumple it up into a ball, and toss it in the trash. Because honestly—it’s toxic as hell.

Instead, I offer you the following alternative. Probably the most important lesson my dad ever taught me and my little brother. The concept of Precisionism.

Perfectionism demands Herculean levels of unerring mastery that leads many to burn out or worse.

However, precisionism asks only that you put forth all the skill and effort you possess at that moment. Unlike perfectionism, it doesn’t require you to achieve some past greatness. Or rise to some future pinnacle of excellence you have yet to obtain. 

Precisionism—in a nutshell—is the idea that you work to the best of your current circumstances, skill, and knowledge. Nothing more, and well within reason to achieve. 

Being introduced to this concept allowed me to grow from an eight-year-old dyslexic autistic girl who couldn’t read or write to the professional storyteller I am today. 

But most importantly, it gave me the ability to understand that I am not a failure when I do not meet the goals I set for myself. Instead, I must simply recalibrate them to fit what I can achieve today.

Well, Story Quester, I hope you consider taking up my Precisionist ways and that you’ll join me in the Scenetember Challenge I’m hosting starting September 1st. Until next time, this is your friendly neighborhood storytelling Kat signing off.