New Leaves

Years ago, when Facebook was all the rage, I began posting on Facebook my life as a mother and wife. I received positive feedback for my postings, especially my take on the challenges of being a mom of boys, so I decided to create a blog. The blog was called Insanity of Motherhood.

Writing the blog was a great creative outlet. When I started, I didn’t have a job, so I was able to focus my thoughts and energy on writing weekly posts. I learned a lot about the writing process, publishing blogs, and about myself. At first, I was filled with doubt that my writing would be up to writing standards. I come from a family of wonderful writers, including my own son. But I went forth with doing the blog anyway, and hoped the people reading would forgive my grammar errors.

The experience of doing something I wasn’t skilled or educated in helped my adopt one of my personal mantras, good enough. I learned it was okay to not to be perfect. As a matter of fact, not only did I not need to be perfect, but I could get by doing something just good enough. Good enough means I am doing what I need to do, but don’t need to do more if it requires making me stressed or unhappy.

Perfectionism is a useful trait. There are some things that need to be perfect, like balancing a checking account or submitting applications for a business license. Publishing books, magazine articles, or research documents also need to be perfect. Perfection can be a powerful way to motivate individuals to achieve high standards and overcome obstacles. But, perfectionism isn’t needed in all aspects, especially our personal lives.

I consider myself a conversationist. When I write, I imagine I am having a conversation with someone. For me, what’s most important when I write is, “Did I convey my message?” or “Is it understood what I’m trying to share?” I learned from my previous writing experience that if I focus too much on creating a perfect product, I won’t write at all. The process becomes too overwhelming thinking of people critiquing my work, noting my lack of complex words or spelling errors.

As I write for New Leaves, I have moments that make me doubt if I should continue. Beginning something again is harder than I thought. It isn’t like riding a bicycle. Writing has not come back easily. After I published my first new blog post I did a review and found a lot of errors. I updated the corrections, but the wave of creating a perfect document hit strong and I began to wonder about my capabilities.

But then, my clear thinking kicked in. I realized I wasn’t writing for living. It wasn’t necessary for every post to be perfect. I appreciate when it comes to expressing myself, people don’t expect perfection. Sure, there will always be a few of readers who will notice every error, but the majority will skim by and try understand what I am trying to say. I’m aware of my imperfections and I’m okay with not being perfect. I’m also okay with others not being perfect. I’ll keep writing and hope people will understand my views and see my work good enough for them, just like it is for me.