Everything Isn’t Going to Be Perfect, and That’s Okay

“Perfection is the enemy of Progress” ~Winston Churchill

Let’s start this with a fact that I know to be true. Perfection is not logically possible. Now knowing this fact and actually adhering to this reality are two different things. I have a lot of issues going on with me. I suffer from Depression; some days it’s a deeper depression than others. I have really heightened anxiety. I am prone to panic attacks when I’m around something or someone that triggers my trauma. But I also have OCD in which I have to have everything a certain way, a very structured way. Where if it’s not a particular way it really messes with my mind and can throw me off track for a long time. My OCD is more about the things that I can control because there’s just simply so many areas of my life right now that I don’t have any control over.

If this were a perfect world, for me, everything I map out and plan would go exactly the way I envision it in my mind. Nothing would be even an inch out of place, and everything would stay right on track, a smooth ride to my desired outcome. But the world isn’t perfect and that’s just not how life works and even though I would theoretically love it if it worked out that way, something one of my dear friends said struck a chord with me. She said that if everything was perfect, what opportunity would there be for you to grow.

Perfection doesn’t leave people any space for the growth that is necessary for an impactful and fulfilling life. When I thought about that it made me take a step back and think about how many people I admire and look up to and who motivate me and the fact that often times it’s their journey that inspires me the most. It’s the message in the experiences that they have gone through that not only changes their lives, but the lives of everyone they encounter or who they motivate through the response to their experiences. I think about the fact that a person can’t really have a testimony to impact others with, without a test in the first place.

We grow because of the trials and tribulations that we struggle through. They either teach us a valuable lesson that we needed to learn, or they strengthen us for the abundant life we are meant to achieve. Often times they do both. I know it sounds very cliché but there can never be any victories, if there are no battles to fight in the first place. While it might seem highly unfair (I know I have found myself screaming out how unfair things are a lot lately), it really is a testament to a person’s character and their strength in the way that they choose to walk through the storms they face and how they respond to the winds that push back against them.

If I look at things through that lens, to truly see what my battles have taught me, what they have built me up for, then I can’t help but feel grateful for them in some way. The success that I hope to achieve in my life is going to require a certain level of toughness and inner strength so that I can sustain that success and further impact others’ lives. It’s going to require resilience for the many setbacks that I have yet to face and all the no’s that I will undoubtedly hear. It will require determination to defy all the standards society has set for me and to knock down all of the decks that have already been stacked against me. It will require a willingness to be extraordinary because the level of success that I hope to achieve will be anything but average.

I think that we would all love it if the plans we mapped out for our lives when we were younger, or hell even five years ago, would go according to how we want. That’s natural to want the journey to go smoothly. It’s just not practical nor is it all that rewarding. If you didn’t have to work so hard to make your dreams a reality, would you even appreciate the end result anyway? There would be no lesson or growth and therefore it wouldn’t feel nearly as satisfying when you get to prove everyone who didn’t believe in you and said you couldn’t do it wrong. So, it may indeed get bumpy as we take this ride to success but I’m betting it will be worth it once we get to our final stop.

Until Next Time… #BeResilient #BePersistent #BeBold

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Jimmetta Carpenter

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