It’s Okay to Miss a Day

On the Topic of Perfection-Induced Paralysis

Good morning!

Have you ever started a new routine, felt great, but then missed a day?

Whenever we try to establish routines that require a great deal of consistency, the question always comes up about how you deal with missing a day.

One of the problems I know that I — and many other young people from my generation — face is the issue of perfectionism-induced paralysis: it’s the issue of realizing that you can’t do something perfectly, which then leads to you stopping and doing nothing.

And this applies to a whole lot of things. For example, my sister disrupted my routine by washing some (but not all) of my clothes for me and just threw them on my bed instead of waiting to let me do it myself, and my routine was so disrupted that I still haven’t managed to put my clothes away, and I might just re-wash them so they go back into “my” system of doing things. For another example, I tried doing pushups every day, and was pretty consistent about it, but then I missed two days, and I haven’t done any pushups since.

I know it’s illogical; missing a day should not be the end of the world. But, for one reason or another, perfection-induced paralysis is a real issue, and it really does affect a lot of young people. That’s why one of the lessons I’ve been trying to learn is that it’s okay to not be perfect, and that consistency is more important than perfection.

Due to a slight shift in routines and living conditions, I also haven’t journaled in around two weeks, and every day that passes by, the more difficult (if not impossible) it seems to “catch up”, which is why I might just cross out the last two weeks as if they never happened, and pick up with today to at least do something.

Partial victories are better than full losses.

I just gave you four examples of situations I’m dealing with where perfectionism has led to at least partial paralysis, and you probably have your own fair share of similar situations, but I’m working on getting myself to the point that I forget about doing it flawlessly and just do it anyways and hope you do the same. Because seriously, at the end of the day, consistency really is far more important than perfection.

God bless you, have a great day!