It’s back – the great debate of passion vs perfection. We’ve become such a multi-tasking, results-oriented culture that we rarely take time to stop and smell the virtual roses. If we do, it’s usually in a hurry with a set agenda in mind or a set amount of time. I’m guilty of this quite a bit. If what I’m doing isn’t perfect, I work at it and work at it until it’s right instead of just enjoying it for what it is.
Last week I talked about pursuing a passion and lamented that I really enjoy digital scrapbooking but I never have time to do it. I resolved to fix that this month as part of the Happiness Project. I set out with good intentions and planned time to sit down with pictures and put together some pages. I actually did sit down and start plugging away.
Then my personality took over and I created and rearranged. I rearranged, and rearranged some more. I decided I wasn’t happy with anything I put together so I decided to run through a few online digital scrapbooking tutorials. At the end of the week, I never ended up happy with anything I created so I had nothing to show for my efforts.
I was stuck in the perfection cycle instead of pursuing passion. Has this ever happened to you? Deep breath. Ahhhhhhh. You can’t pursue a passion in a panic. This week the goal is to Forget About Results. Forget them, out the window.
Create to create and don’t care about what it looks like. This is something meant to be fun and not open heart surgery. The world as I know it will not end if my background is the wrong shade of purple or things aren’t in alignment in thirds. If I still hate my pages years from now, I can open the file and change it however I want. Hence the “digital” part of scrapbooking. Most likely I’ll just be thrilled to find these pages in the future.
I need you to hold me accountable. Next Monday’s post must include a picture of my scrapbook page creation. If not, get on me about it. Did you make time for your passion last week or did you get stuck in a perfection cycle? Why is it so hard as adults to just be? Some of us just forget how after we grow up.
I find that using a time limit helps curb my desire for perfection. I also try to remember The Nester’s motto about Good Enough, not Perfect. Mostly it works….
That’s an excellent idea! I’m definitely going to set a time and get to work. When time’s up, it’s done. I love this!
I can be an all or nothing person. It drives me wacky sometimes. I can relate the scrapbooking issues-one time I went to a weekend away with my friends for scrapbooking. I spent so much time organizing and not liking my layouts I got hardly anything done.
I guess half the battle is recognizing that we do this. The other half is conquering it. 😉 Hopefully taking a class will help me get a little better and faster with the scrapbooking. I also love Barb’s idea of a time limit. See her comment on this post. I’d love an entire scrapbooking weekend! That’s a great idea.