Not Letting Perfect be the Enemy of Good

It’s funny, I often talk about how striving for perfection can get in the way of action with my coaching clients and yet I’ve found myself doing the very same thing with this blog.

As you might know, I started this blog as a creative outlet and to help people find great deals and enhance their personal style. It still boggles my mind that I used to put out 2 to 3 blog posts a week, in addition to posting on IG, FB, and Pinterest. How the heck did I find the time?

The weeks whiz by now and there’s always just so much going on. I know it’s not just me feeling this way. I hear it daily from my clients. The blessing I’ve found in this is that it makes you want to pare back to what’s most important.

I stopped using social media years ago and it was such a great move. While I’m not able to drive traffic to my blog like before, it was still the right move for me. When I paid attention to how I felt when using social media it was abundantly clear that it wasn’t doing me any good. After an hourlong session on IG (or even 5 minutes on FB) I felt depleted and dissatisfied. At first I thought I was just taking a break, but I don’t really see myself ever going back. The desire just isn’t there.

So why am I posting about this, you might ask? Well, in order for this to be a true creative outlet for me and potentially help others I need to be completely honest and vulnerable. I’ve only recently come to the realization that I haven’t been posting pics or even really taking pics because I compare myself to the way I looked when I started the blog, all the way back in late 2015.

I’ve blamed it on many other things, but when it comes down to it it’s really just a vanity thing. When you have the ability to take a bunch of pictures (100 is not uncommon for a single outfit – no joke) and edit them you can show the best version of yourself/clothes/whatever. But then it becomes REALLY hard to post anything that seems less than one’s best. Plus, once you get used to posting a new outfit from multiple angles, using a professional level camera, with a cute background a quick mirror selfie or a photo via my iPhone just doesn’t seem up to snuff. That being said, I just upgraded from the iPhone 7 (seriously behind the times over here!) to an iPhone 13. I’m hoping to take more quick shots of my daily outfits as the camera is SO STINKING GOOD. 

I keep going back and forth about whether I should end this blog. But I’m not quite ready for something so final. I still have a burning desire to share my finds and knowledge with the world. So instead, I’m going to take a different approach and not limit myself to only the types of posts I’ve put out in the past. I’m going to try to put out more posts of different kinds and stop holding myself back because of perfectionism. At least as long as it feels good anyway.

I’d love to hear from you: How has perfectionism affected your life, if at all? Are you ok with good enough? How often do you pay attention to how you feel when doing something? 

On a lighter note, I’m loving this top and my new uber stretchy denim from Express! Since I am wearing larger sizes these days and it’s getting colder I invested in some new jeans. I highly recommend these! They are “hyper stretch” so they are supposed to fit up to 3 sizes. I’m not so sure about that, but they fit me great and I could sleep in them so – good enough for me 😉 The top is a bit see through, but not so sheer that I needed a tank underneath. It’s pretty perfect for warm days as a result and quite forgiving. 

I’ll be back soon with more, thanks for listening.

XO, Kate 

Photo credit: Leo Amar (via his cell phone haha)