So the goal was to write every other week, if not weekly. I had post topics lined up and of course when I sat down to actually write, I couldn’t find them. So annoying more than anything because I had it all written out in my head already. I knew what I wanted to say. Unfortunately, all I can remember now is that I was excited about the topics and I was looking forward to writing. And when I couldn’t find them, I just kept looking, as if they would magically appear in the places I had already looked. More time passed, and I still hadn’t written anything, all in the name of finding the perfect post topics again.
I still haven’t found them. Maybe I never will, but this distraction of perfection is getting in the way of my doing anything at all. Then weeks, months, years (?!) go by and nothing has changed, nothing has been done. What a waste of time! So, no this post may not be what I had hoped, but it’s more important to get it done as well as I can. Otherwise, it will be another thing collecting dust in my museum of good intentions, and I’d rather not add another crumbling hope.
Perfection is so enticing, isn’t it? But it isn’t real, so why do we put so much time and effort into obtaining that which is unobtainable? We tell our friends, family members, just do your best, you don’t have to be perfect. But when it comes to ourselves, no, we hold ourselves to an impossible standard. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with wanting and trying to do your best, trying to be better. There’s nothing wrong with that. I think where I, and many people, get stuck is when perfection is the end goal rather than the process of doing the work, the struggle, that taking one step after another.
Have you read or watched any of the Harry Potter books? (J.K. Rowling has certainly been a disappointment, but that’s another post.) Spoiler alert if you haven’t read or watched the last book/film. You know the part where Harry dies and he meets Dumbledore at King’s Cross Station, and he asks why Dumbledore made it so difficult for him? I mean, it’s a fair question. He could have easily given Harry all the answers he needed to get all the Deathly Hallows.
“I am afraid I counted on Miss Granger to slow you up, Harry. I was afraid that your hot head might dominate your good heart. I was scared that, if presented outright with the facts about those tempting objects, you might seize the Hallows as I did, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. If you laid hands on them, I wanted you to possess them safely.”
Meaning he, Harry, needed to go through the struggle. The challenges he faced, the lessons learned, the growth he experienced all were necessary for Harry to have and use the Hallows safely, which ultimately led to the defeat of Voldemort. This also reminds me of one of my most favorite poems:
“…don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them.” You will live your way into the answer, just as Harry did. Live, not plan and hope and never take action. Live. Take that leap into imperfect action, because you can waste an entire life in only hope and prayer…or an entire month in searching for lost things like I did.
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