The Husband shared an article with me that said this:
"Do your not-best. The need to give your absolute best in every situation is a lie sold to you by a gym teacher, a coach, and capitalism. No, you do not owe everything 110%. You actually owe most things a 70, maybe even a 60. The world does not require your perfection." - Nora McInerny
Do your not-best.
For a continuously-recovering perfectionist, this is an almost impossible task.
Don't do my best?
Don't give 110% to everything I attempt to do?
But what if I don't give my absolute best? What happens if I slack off and only give 98% and fail?
Worse yet, what if I give my usual 110% and I still fail?
Later, the Oldest shared this with me: The best way to succeed is first to fail.
So now I have one person who told me I don't have to give it my all, all the time. And another person told me it's okay to fail on my way to success.
I have to admit I've struggled with taking the first step on many things in my life for fear of failing.
Bertrand seems to be getting better at conquering his fears, though. He's venturing closer to the back porch.
I'm not sure why he is attempting this adventure on an almost-daily basis, but maybe he's just curious to see what's on the other side of the yard.
I asked him what gives him the courage to take another step closer to the human domicile each time he journeys far from his tree home.
I wouldn't swear to it, but I think he said something like this.
“You’ll always miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.”
Okay, maybe it was Wayne Gretzky I heard in my mind, not a squirrel's inaudible musings.
But, no matter whose voice it was, the words were accurate.
I currently edit blogs for banks and credit unions, and I recently started writing articles for a virtual assisting website. But I've been putting off learning about the right methods and processes for writing copy and blogs for companies because the information in this digital world is just so intimidating sometimes.
And then, an opportunity presented itself. And then another. And then another.
And I could no longer put off what I was scared of - not being able to learn and understand a new process. Or maybe my fear centered on not remembering what I was trying to learn.
But I went full-steam ahead anyway because I didn't want to miss out on these opportunities.
And what I learned along the way was pretty cool.
I learned that things are not always as hard as they seem.
I would have never known this had two people in my life not challenged me to "don't worry about always doing your best" and "the best way to learn is to fail first."
What made this lesson even better is that the designer of the certification course I'm currently taking for SEO seemed to know exactly how to reach my brain.
In my world of learning, if you compare something to a library, you've created a student who's about to ace their test.
I've become so excited about how these skills will help me partner with small businesses to reach their target market through blogging and copywriting that I'm knocking out articles left and right—and loving every minute of it.
Bring on those opportunities because I'm ready to give 98%. It may not be perfect, but I'll know I gave it my not best. And maybe the results will still be just fine.
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