The red X and a battle for perfection

I wonder, how many terrific ideas exist but never have the chance of seeing the light of day?  I find myself pondering this question as I sit here telling myself I can’t publish an article I wrote last week because I haven’t had the time to take a proper corresponding image for it.

Quite frankly, I have many articles sitting on the bench waiting to be published.  Every time I turn on my computer I hear them all calling out to me “coach put me in, I promise I can do it” And every time I respond with the same rejection “no, you’re not ready yet, you’re not perfect.  If I put you in now we won’t look good”.

And of course now my persistent publishing stall tactic has turned into one of those situations that seem to spiral out of control relentlessly sans any effort at all.  Kind of like my daughter’s recent (and unfortunate) experience after missing one homework assignment.  That quickly turned into two and then three assignments; before she knew it she was so far behind she had no idea where to start in getting caught up.  She basically ate the entire box of Poptarts with this one (metaphorically speaking that is). Eventually she ended up having a serious I-give-up melt down in the dean’s office and that was the end of it.

At my age I don’t get to have those kind of melt downs nor do I have a dean that will say as he’s picking up the phone to dial a supporting loved one “don’t feel bad about not getting your work done, let’s just turn this thing around right now before it gets any worse”

So here I sit with several articles written and not one of them in the past two months  (er…two and a half months) published because I don’t think I have images to use…well perfect images that is. I have tons of pictures yet the fact that none of them seem to be perfect is distracting me from publishing articles to my blog.

And like the missed homework assignments, the more I miss the harder it is to dig out of the whole.

Perfection is holding me back.

Like so many other people, my life without a doubt is crazy busy.  Sometimes weeks will pass before I even have an opportunity to grab my camera and shoot. Which leads to my current dilemma; I don’t want to post an article with a less-than-perfect image so they end up collecting digital dust in the cloud while they await their chance to debut on my blog.

That’s too bad because I love to play in the kitchen and want to share recipes especially ones my daughter and I create together but I never seem to.  Why? Well because I don’t have the best lighting in my kitchen for food photography and of course we all know what kind of pressure that is for an aspiring photographer.  Can’t have halfway decent pictures…no, they must be commercial-grade professional…aka perfect.

Anyone who knows me is laughing right now…I’m sure

There are so many things I love to talk about, experience and be inspired by and then turn right around and share with others.  I love art, photography, cooking, baking crackers, science, finding a great sweater, scarf or pair of boots (that’s as far into fashionista I go) and anything to do with “home”, I love to read…I love the mountains and I love to write; maybe I too could write something inspiring one day.

But right now perfection is getting in the way; the need inside me to be perfect is stopping me from perfecting one of the things I love to do.

Perfection is getting in the way.

Which brings me back to my original thought; I wonder how many terrific ideas exist that will never see the light of day?

How many amazing stories have yet to be published?  How many beautiful songs have yet to be written?  How many paintings are still waiting for a canvas?  How many new and innovative businesses want to be started?  How many unique creations are waiting to exist…patiently waiting and asking the coach for a shot?

How often does the need to be perfect keep us from just doing what we love?

For me this is an epiphany.

I’ve served my daughter less-than perfect homemade pasta in the past and she still loves me…it’s a fact. If I quit serving my daughter pasta years ago because it wasn’t perfect we wouldn’t be making ravioli together today.  If I never shared my crackers with anyone until I thought they were perfect I’d still be the only one eating them.

So what if I don’t have the “perfect” image, I’m not putting my articles on the bench anymore; because every time I postpone a “publish” I postpone doing something I love to do.

*Epiphany*

At the end of the day it’s more important to keep moving in the direction we love even if the results are less than perfect. No matter what, you just can’t postpone putting it out there.

Do what you love everyday, even if it’s just in little bits and pieces  – just keep putting it out there.

And never… under any circumstances convince yourself you need to wait until it’s perfect; because once you get in the habit of postponing and putting your craft on the bench due to the lack of perfection, you stop doing what you love.

*sigh*

I am,

The Urban Mountaineer