Steps you can take today to get beyond the idea of perfection and start celebrating your fitness progress:!
Practice makes perfect!
So, if you are not perfect, does that mean you didn’t practice enough, you didn’t work hard enough, you didn’t do something right?
The concept of perfection is daunting! Perfection, by definition, is improving something until it is flawless. The thought of making even one aspect of your life flawless is a heavy burden to carry. What if you could alter your mindset and take the focus off the idea of perfection and turn it toward an awareness of progression? It is important that you recognise that improvement is the journey and perfection is not the destination.
The facades of perfection surround us. You cannot scroll through social media without seeing someone with the “perfect” body, the “perfect” career, the “perfect” fitness level…Then, something happens. Your mind starts to wander. You start questioning yourself…doubting yourself. Worst of all, you start comparing yourself. In doing so, you are negating the path of progress you have traveled to get to where you are. Everyone’s journey looks different, so stay focused, recognise your strengths, and utilise them to continue on your own path.
Here are some steps you can take today to get beyond the idea of perfection and start celebrating your fitness progress:
1. Know your starting point
Focus on where you are, starting from right now in your life, and not where you think you could be or should be. This type of introspection sets you off on the right foot.
2. Set your goals
Set small, measurable, attainable goals along your journey. This will give you the opportunity to celebrate the forward momentum and progression you make towards your main goal. This is the point of your journey when you need to “stop and smell the roses”.
3. Don’t Stress
There will be roadblocks and detours along the way. There will always be things that we cannot plan for or change. Instead of stressing about those things, focus on what you can control. That gives you back the power so you can keep moving forward.
4. Keep Moving Forward
Sometimes we get stuck in our mistakes and setbacks. Those times can be disappointing and disheartening. Telling yourself that the path leading to your goals needs to be traveled perfectly leaves no room to celebrate progress along the way. Don’t allow a lack of motivation to compromise your commitment to your goals.
Your journey will not be a linear one! Let’s be honest. It may have peaks and valleys like the Alps. You will have successes and failures along the way. Celebrating progress, no matter how small, gives a rightfully earned sense of achievement that is to be encouraged and reinforced. These achievements will propel us to keep a similar pace and sense of enthusiasm moving forward.
We should reflect on our failures, not as irreparable mistakes, but as a way to learn and correct our course on our journey. Understand that great minds like Albert Einstein saw failure as success in progress. Nurture the momentum you have and keep driving closer to your goals. In the end, choose progress, not perfection. Humans are naturally imperfect. You are imperfectly you.
Written by: Jeanette Edwards of Jeanette Brooke Fitness
