“Strive for progress, not perfection!”

I came across this quote over the weekend and wrote it down because I like the optimistic reality of it. The article it was attached to was about weight loss and more specifically, running. But since I tend to be a “bigger picture” sort of thinker, I thought it was such a great quote for LIFE!

I mean, think about it. We set lofty goals for just about everything we do. My personal list consists of: eating better, losing weight, developing a walking plan, reading more, praying more…etc. When I don’t reach my goals, I can feel like such a failure and become discouraged in my efforts and tell myself dumb stuff like, “I guess this is just the way it’s meant to be.”

I remember years ago when I was successful in losing a lot of weight. I made the decision to resist the urge of looking at the goal – meaning, the big number. Instead, I would only look at 5 lb. increments. That didn’t sound or feel so overwhelming. Each week I would add something simple into the mix; like, drinking one bottle of water each day – or adding one vegetable. As I continued down this realistic and achievable road, my mindset began to change. I began reaping the benefits of my baby-step goals. My little efforts were becoming huge areas of progress.

Notice I didn’t say “perfection.” Truth of the matter is…we will never gain perfection, because life is not perfect. The target is always moving and so we will always strive for a little bit more. We need to be okay with that or we will always feel let down by our imperfect results.

But…we can gain huge leaps and bounds in making personal progress. So looking at this with that bigger picture in mind, isn’t this how we should approach all that we set out to do? “Strive for progress, not perfection!”

As I look at my week ahead, I have a personal list that I hope to accomplish – just as I’m sure you do. Let’s try setting the goal on “progress” and not “perfection.” Obviously, moving toward the finished product, but let’s not beat ourselves down if we don’t reach them. Instead, let’s focus on the progress that we’ve made, which is always further out than where we began. Right?!

So what’s on your plate this week? What are some realistic baby-steps you can take to progress in forward motion?

Remember…“Strive for progress, not perfection!”

Happy Monday, friends.
Hoping yours is filled with imperfect forward motion!

~CindyLu