“Perfectionism is self destructive simply because there is no such thing as being perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal.”  — Brene´ Brown

I’d love to get a perfect score for this blog challenge and write a post every single day. But, let me be perfectly clear, it probably won’t happen. There is too much going on in my brain. And it isn’t just one thing. It’s everything.

This morning, I was beating myself up for not writing a post yesterday. Since I’m not working right now, I was home all day. Couldn’t I have found an hour to put something together? I’m sure I could have, but I didn’t. What was my excuse? I have none. Does that make me lazy? Not talented enough? Or worse, a failure?

No. Hell No. and No.

I’m just tired and my heart wasn’t into it and that’s perfectly okay.

Today wasn’t much better. I had an appointment early this morning, and for some reason, it threw off my routine and momentum. I blame it on the lack of coffee. It took me a while to get going afterward. Tonight, I’m writing myself a to-do list so I can start tomorrow off right. I’m not expecting a perfect day. I’m expecting a better day than today and yesterday.

It isn’t just this blog. I haven’t written a lot of my book lately. And I should be posting consistently on LinkedIn to stay front of mind to future employers and recruiters. Some weeks, I have plenty to say and others I’m stuck. I am noticing that when I put less pressure on myself, I do much better. I can get those posts close to perfect, but unless it’s a fantastic post that gets me a new job, I will likely miss the mark.

Basically, if I wait for perfect timing, or the perfect fit, or the perfect storm, I’ll never get anything accomplished. They say that practice makes perfect, but I’m not finding that to be the case. So, I’m fine to keep on practicing to be more productive instead.

I hope this is making sense. It’s been a weird week. But remember nobody’s perfect. 🙂

XO,
Elisa

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Remember that Friends episode where Chandler discovers that Monica has a jam-packed closet. He discovered the flaw in her neat-freak DNA.

“You’re messy,” he snickered.

My home office has a closet that isn’t as bad as that, but it is a catch-all for anything that will fit. The only condition is that we have to be able to close the door to hide the mess behind it.

Today, I decided to open that closet and clean it out. I needed something to distract me from all of the news programs, and this seemed to be a good way to pass the time. I texted this “before” photo to my sister, turned on my favorite ’80s playlist, and went to work.

The first thing I saw was that poor teddy bear wedged at the bottom of the closet. The poor thing. If I wasn’t so tired right now, I’d give him a name and an entire backstory as to why he was banished to the bottom of the closet without a second thought.

Feel free to let your imaginations run wild with your own backstory in the comments…

Meanwhile, my sister texted me back and asked what the closet was originally designated to hold. Good question! I had to think back to when my kids were still at home. We added the closet so the kids had a place to put their toys away. Prior to this room becoming my home office, it was a playroom and then a man cave where my son could play his video games. But, now both kids are out of the house, and their toys remain.

For a while, my husband and I rationalized that we would keep certain toys for our nieces and nephews who are all younger. Now, when the youngest comes over, she would much rather play with our dog. This gave me permission to get rid of board games, train tracks, Lincoln logs, and so on.

Besides the toys, there are other things hiding in that closet. I admit that over the year’s the closet’s purpose expanded to include my growing jigsaw puzzle collection and cleaning supplies.

Then, we bought a Costco membership. And then the pandemic hit and we stocked up on lots (and lots) of toilet paper and tomato sauce.

The more I cleaned, the more I found things I thought were long gone. I found the good electronic vegetable chopper, a mini popcorn popper, three boxes of Ziploc sandwich bags, and a sleeve of clear plastic glasses. Sadly, this was the most exciting part of my day.

I also decided the closet would still be a catch-all, but I’d give more thought to what I put in it before tossing it and shutting the door. This is my plan for the moment, but I know full well that I could be back to a messy closet by the end of the year.

I now have a clean closet, a nice donate pile, and a large bag of trash. There is also a small group of items from my old kitchen that I stashed away in there. Since I’m not ready to part with them yet, I’ll have to find a spot for them near the kitchen.

Hmm… maybe the hallway closet. Just kidding!

Also, the teddy bear is happy to be free and he forgives me. .

XO,

Elisa

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