Escaping the paralysis of perfection

For the past four months, I’ve woken up at 7:00 AM. My parents only believed it when they saw it. My whole life I’ve been a late sleeper. Wake-up-at-two-in-the-afternoon-if-I-can-get-away-with-it type of sleeper.

How did I transition from night owl to early riser? Practice. I started going to sleep earlier. I started waking up a bit earlier (first at 9, then at 8:30, and onward). I helped my mind and body out by leaving the curtains open so sunlight would come in.

Within the past few months, I’ve begun waking up earlier, exercising regularly, meditating daily, Pressing Publish to the public web daily, journaling, eating more whole foods, and stopped drinking soda. Each of those additions to my life comes through practice. I’m still practicing. I miss posting here sometimes, I skip out on the gym, I sleep in.

I don’t need to act perfectly, I simply need to start acting.

Activism is the same. I am going to mess it up. I’m going to do the wrong thing, say the wrong, think the wrong thing. I don’t want to be paralyzed by my imperfection. That won’t help anyone.

So I act. I experiment. I try. I listen. I evaluate and adjust. And I do it again.

It’s not perfect, and that’s ok.

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Photo by OilBac