You Don’t Have to Be Perfect

Perfection is bullshit.

You may disagree with the above statement, but I fully stand by it. For me, being perfect simply isn’t possible. Don’t believe me? Here’s why.

In the past, I tried hard to be perfect. I wanted to be the perfect student, the perfect employee, the perfect friend, and the perfect daughter. I wanted to be perfect at being healthy, popular and smart. I thought that being perfect was the only way to go.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Trying to be perfect wrecked so much havoc on me physically, mentally and emotionally. Physically speaking, it caused me to not work out enough or eat healthy enough because I wasn’t working out when I wanted to, and I wasn’t always able to eat healthily. But it did more damage outside of that. It caused me to be filled with guilt whenever I slipped up. It stressed me out because I was trying to be perfect at so many things at once. Multi-tasking is hard enough at the best of times. But when you try to add perfection into the mix, it became next to impossible. It caused my performance at school and work to suffer as a result.

My attempts in trying to be perfect also ruined my mental health. I was constantly full of anxiety because I couldn’t stop worrying about whether or not I was perfect or not. When I realized that that wasn’t the case, I would quickly become depressed about that fact. I would then resolve to smarten up and finally be perfect at everything, and then the aforementioned vicious cycle would continue.

It took several years of tears, stress and deteriorating mental health before I finally realized the hard truth: Perfection is bullshit. While that doesn’t mean one shouldn’t try their best, stressing out over not being flawless isn’t healthy. I had to learn that it’s okay to screw up and not be perfect. Papers can be good, but they may contain some minor flaws anyways. Mistakes can happen at work- we all make them. If you miss a workout or a healthy meal (be it by accident or on purpose), it’s fine! It happens to all of us at one time or another.

In more recent years, I’ve stressed out less and less about being perfect at everything. Don’t get it wrong- I’m not slacking off. I still try to excel at work and am still trying to improve my overall health. But I also take mental health days when needed, and don’t find missing a workout once in a while if I find that I need to take a rest day. If I miss a workout because I accidentally slept in (which happens once in a while), it does bother me. But I don’t beat myself up over it. I’ll just get back on track the very next day.

If you’re currently stressing over trying to be perfect- DON’T. Don’t do it. You don’t have to be perfect at anything and everything! It sounds silly to say, but it’s more important to try to do your best. Remember- there’s so much more to life than being perfect. There’s no point in ruining your mental health for the sake of trying to be perfect because it’s horrible. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy, believe me.

The bottom line is- Perfection is bullshit.

xo,

Elizabeth