Enjoy the journey doing what you love

How many of you remember your mother telling you, “If you are going to take the time to do something, then you better do it right?” We have all been taught to excel at whatever we decide to do in life. Most of us have spent years hearing these words, “Be the best ... Achieve … Do it 110 percent or don’t do it at all!” Quite honestly, I think perfection is overrated. Oftentimes, our quest perfection is what is limiting our ability to be happy and enjoy life!

I believe the world would be a better place if we changed the phrase, “If you are going to do something, do it right” to “If you are going to do something, do something you love!”

Our quest for perfection can cause us to cancel potentially joyful events. For example, I better not play tennis - because I really am not very good at it. I don’t think I should go to the beach - because I don’t swim well. We find excuses not to try new things because we might not be good enough at it.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some areas in which we should give 110 percent. Those things include our marital relationships, our relationships with our children, how we chose to worship, etc. But there are many, many more things that we should participate in simply because we enjoy it.

Current research states, “Perfection and its standards might be rising against the investigative process.” In other words, because I may not be willing to compromise my standard of perfection, I may be failing to try new things.

I spent a lot of time getting an education and my grades were very important to me. I worked hard for my GPA in graduate school. I have been very interested in taking a Spanish class for years, but I am very busy and, therefore, concerned that if I took the class, well, I might not get an A! How silly is that? Wouldn’t knowing some Spanish be better than not knowing any Spanish? The same can be said of my cooking - there have been times when I did not want to invite friends over for dinner because, quite frankly, I am a horrible cook. In the back of my mind I hear those words, “If you are going to do something, do it right, or don’t do it at all." I think it would be better for me (and my family) if we invited friends over and had grilled cheese sandwiches, than not invite people to our home. Another difficulty I might encounter is that if I make a mistake … a significant blunder in my life … I might just stop right there. If I think I’m a perfect golfer and I double bogey the first hole, I might give up right there and walk off the course. I seem to have the idea that it’s either perfection or nothing!

There are many of us who believe we have to do it well (perfectly) or we won’t do it at all. Yikes! We might even find out we like to do something we have never done before … if we would give ourselves a chance to do it in an imperfect way!

It is important for us to be good at what we do. But we do not have to be good at everything! We should learn that comparing ourselves to others will only lead to discouragement. We might be raising the bar a little bit too high by trying to do things perfectly.

John Henry Newman said, “A man would do nothing if he waited until he could do it so well that no one could find fault.” We must learn to enjoy the journey. If you are going to take the time to do something, do something you love!