"Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life."
~ Dr. David M. Burns
~ Dr. David M. Burns
I'm going to need to remember this in the next few weeks. I tend to be a perfectionist, but I also tend to be a huge procrastinator. Generally, those two don't mesh so well when it comes to getting things done.
I seem to find myself in a bit of a predicament due to my procrastinating habits. Technically, I was supposed to hand in a 9- to 11-page paper today about acid rain in terrestrial ecosystems. That didn't happen. Thankfully, my prof is a nice guy and is giving me an extension until the end of the week. Sweet! I can get that done if I really focus on being productive. But... my other problem is that my senior seminar is in two weeks and one day and I have done NOTHING! So, the longer it takes me to write this paper, the less time I have to focus on my senior seminar.
I keep hoping that next year I'll actually be able to focus on school, because it will hopefully be stuff that I care about, and it will be all that I am doing. Now, I don't really care about any of my classes, I have other things distracting me (work, grad school stuff, future planning, etc...), and I just can't seem to focus and get things done that pertain to school.
So, if I don't happen to post in the next few weeks, it is because I am trying to dig myself out of this HUGE pile of school work that I keep putting off.
Having struggled with both most of my born days, I'd have to say that perfectionism and procrastination walk hand and hand. They are a most annoying couple. I love the quote you shared; it's SO true! I wish I'd acquired a long time ago the wisdom you have now. I'm guessing your version of "imperfect" is probably "off-the-charts excellent" for most people. One thing I've learned is that worrying only drains our energy; better to take little bites out of the big hunks of work than fret. And take walks. And exhale. I'm rooting for you!!!
ReplyDeleteMWA!
ReplyDeleteIt will all be fine in the end. Just gotta keep eyes on the target. What target? Squint. I'm not sure what it is either, but there's a fuzzy outline to stare at. We'll get there soon enough:-)