If I could go back in time and tell younger me that I follow this motto, younger me would almost certainly stare in disbelief. In many ways I was a perfectionist. If I couldn’t do something perfectly (and often I expected myself to do things perfectly on the first try), then I wouldn’t do it at all.
Thinking back on all the things I could have tried and eventually became skilled with, only to be held back by the “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right” saying. Still, I do believe that it’s important to try to do everything right and try hard at it – but in recent years amongst the chaos of raising my littles, moving, and starting homesteading – I’ve learned that you need to choose where to give your 100%. Every day I give as much as I can to my family and in ensuring my animals receive proper care.
But that pile of not dirty but not perfectly clean clothes on ‘the chair’ (I’m convinced everyone has some version of ‘the chair’ – a dumping grounds for clothing that you intend to wear again before washing), the dog nose prints on the windows, and often my weeding chores for the garden – well, I let those slide when I need to.
Homesteading is a constant learning experience and while in the depths of learning a new skill, during an illness, or just spending quality time with my family – sometimes things just need to slide.
This past summer I had some health issues that resulted in my gallbladder removal. I had already planted my whole garden and it was rather ambitious with new types of plants – one of them being luffa! But during my illness and recovery period, that meticulously planned garden turned into an overgrown jungle. Every time I would look at it I had to remind myself of where my priorities needed to be. I could’ve spent hours out there just pulling weeds and tossing them in the chicken run for them to gorge themselves happily on the greens.
The garden remained a jungle for the remainder of the season. But it still produced tasty food for my family, it gave me joy to walk along the untidy rows, and I successfully grew a couple of luffa on my newly installed cattle panel arch. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. But it was still worth doing. Some is better than none.
So if you’re like I used to be and won’t try something for fear of not being good at it, or not being able to make it perfect – try to remind yourself that if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing poorly.
