Bad Habits: Perfection

Hopefully I won’t surprise anyone when I reveal that I’m not perfect. I don’t want to be perfect. I live in an imperfect world with billions of other imperfect people (careening imperfectly down imperfect freeways…I could actually do with a little more perfection there), and so each day unfolds imperfectly.

This is the life!

Perfection is a terrible impediment to our goals. If we hold ourselves to an impossible standard, we will find it impossible to meet! But what does all of this philosophizing have to do with fitness? (Phitness?)

Well, the last time I was training for a race, I skipped several training runs. I had scheduled 6 or so miles for most of those runs, but I only had time to run 3 or 4 miles when the days came. So, naturally, I didn’t run at all on those days because I couldn’t follow The Plan.

With my allergies and my preference for healthy foods, I prepare most of my meals at home. Combined with my busy schedule, this means that I usually devote a few hours each Monday night to prepping my food for the next 7 days. There are times when I don’t have enough free hours to prepare all of my planned meals…so I cook nothing in advance! I’m sure Chipotle appreciates those weeks.

Would some miles have been better than no miles? Should I have cooked what I had time to cook and supplemented when I needed to? Of course! But I was too caught up in following my plans perfectly to see that bigger picture.

The perfect is the enemy of the good. Do what you can each day to move toward your goals and you will make a lot more progress than you will by stopping and restarting because you didn’t do it “perfectly”. Doing it at all is about as perfect as it gets.