Just Start Imperfectly

There’s a time to let go of a project and accept that it’s good enough for now. Since I retired and moved onto other things, there have been lots of firsts. Creating a website, writing a blog post, opening a coaching business, and creating a brand, are just some of the big firsts. With each first, the same question spins in my mind, “Do I do it imperfectly, or not at all?”  

Getting Stuck

It’s easy to stall and not move forward because the goal is difficult, and new, and I feel out of my depth. Being a beginner is challenging. I like to do my best, and doing something that “needs improvement” feels like I’m slacking off and getting a C. 

It’s also easy to get stuck, when I measure my efforts against those with years of experience and skills in that area. I forget, that as a beginner, I’m allowed to be a lot less perfect. 

Get It Done; Refine It Later

I’m learning that it’s more important to get something done and refine it later, than stall trying to perfect it. When I measure myself against those who have more experience, I’m being unfair to myself and I’m sabotaging my growth. I will never be able to start as strongly as those who are already there. No one can! Their achievements are goals for me to work towards. But I can’t work towards those goals if I never start imperfectly. When there’s an imperfect start, there’s material to work with, experience gained, and skills beginning to develop. 

To Perfect, Or Not To Perfect

When making an error while knitting or crocheting a garment, there are two kinds of people: one who will unravel their work to fix it even if it’s 20 rows back, and the other who will shrug and say, “If it’s on the back, I’ll never see it.”  I was always the first person. I would take a project apart to make it right, even if I was the only person who would’ve known there was an error. 

“Who Will Know?”

Then a couple of years ago, I was crocheting a temperature blanket* where there was a square representing the temperature for each day of the year. Things were going along swimmingly until I got to the end of September and found a square in my bag that should’ve been included in July’s row. What to do? At that moment, an experienced knitted said the most mind-blowing thing to me, “Who will know?” She was right. I would be the only one to know.

A Recovering Perfectionist

The consequence of having to go back and “fix” the error would’ve taken the fun out of the project. It didn’t need to be that accurate to be enjoyed, and function as a blanket. It was my first temperature blanket and it was good enough. Gosh, that’s a hard feeling to experience as a recovering perfectionist!

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I’d love to hear your thoughts about starting new things imperfectly. Comment below.

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*A temperature blanket is a recording of the daily temperatures for a year. In my blanket for 2023, each crocheted square was divided into two sections, one colour represented the daily high and one the daily low temperature.  I created a key with different colours of yarn for each range of temperatures. For example, 15 -19 degrees Celsius was skylight blue and 10 – 14 degrees was sea green.