Oops

 

In a recent appointment with my therapist the question was posted do I struggle with perfectionism. At first I was like no I’m not a perfectionist, but then through an illustration, I came to the conclusion that I do struggle with perfectionism. Why am I saying this because in an effort to be the best at what I do, I often get caught up in the analysis of paralysis, doing more thinking than actually taking action.  I have come to realize that in life perfectionism is the killer of more dreams than can be imagined.

To be honest I had planned on doing this big blog for Valentines Day and all that stuff but the reality is that life happened. After a grueling week, I looked and saw that I had not posted for Thursday blogs. The perfectionist in me rose up and said oh because you didn’t do that you might as well just wait till next Thursday to make something to post but as I began to think about it, if I did that I would be defeating the purpose of this blog and Tlamontspeaks, in general, that is to educate, empower, and mobilize. These things do not happen in a perfect environment and on a perfect track. If I succumbed to my perfection I would be doing life a disservice and dishonoring my commitment to those who read. When I began to explore what was beneath all of it I realized that it was fear. Fear that I was not consistent or doing the right thing or just would fail. The truth of the matter is I have been given another day to live and an opportunity to start over and do it again or even better. Last night I was looking at a YouTube interview of one of my favorite authors Enitan Bereola ( if you want anything on being a gentlemen or etiquette he is the guru) He made a powerful statement that “some people see failure as a stopping point, I failed until I succeeded” That was a tweetable quote lol. And as I sat to think about it how many of us walk away from something just when we are at the turning point in life. We should see failure as an opportunity even though it is easy to get into the emotional feeling of having failed or been defeated. But the truth all of us have oops moments in our life.

I am currently reading a book by Jon Acuff called “Finish”. I just finished reading his book called “Start”. In finish he makes this point that what truly keeps us from succeeding at any goal or desire in life is the desire for it to be perfect. The desire for us to remain consistent at every turn without their being any chance of error or mistake. Once those mistakes are their we give up instead of pressing forward. Why am I saying all of this because at some point your going to hit a detour, your going to have things that come up you are going to get distracted. If you don’t believe it look at all the goals you set out for this year and you have already fallen off of that commitment. The goal is not to guilt you but for you to see that whatever your oops moment is don’t let it stop you from pressing on. It may not be blog Thursday but I can still blog I can still post and I will still be back on my grind next Thursday.

I do not know how many more oops moments I will have. What I can guarantee is that I will have much more but I hope you will be like me and strive not to see a dead end at a detour or a delay as denial. Embrace the moments in your life that make you say oops and keep it moving until you get to the end.