Proud Not Perfect
Hey Grown Women,
One of the core principals of Grown Woman Life is that grown women leverage life’s lessons.
We have experiences positive and negative, that serve to evolve our knowledge, behavior, character, and approach. I believe growth can only happen if you are acknowledging these experiences and trying to capture the lessons in real-time. This is my way of sharing my lessons with you!
The Situation
I have been working for months to launch the Grown Woman Life community. It has been a labor of love. I couldn’t t think of a better way to launch a community celebrating women over 40 than to do that during Women’s History and Empowerment month. I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I led with passion. I had a plan.
Ladies, please know, it is was a hell of a plan is was specific with specific actions, milestones, contingencies, etc. I dream big, so the project included starting the month with the launch of the Grown Woman Life podcast and ending the month by publishing my first book.
The Struggle
My world suddenly changed. I got PROMOTED. Incredible opportunity, awesome job, and I couldn’t be happier. BUT my new responsibilities added an additional set of challenges when it came to completing my passion project.
So I did what grown women do, I pivoted with purpose, adjusted the plan, my goals, and stayed positive. All good, right? WRONG!
In the last two weeks, it started to fall apart a bit. As if the challenges of adjusting to my new job weren’t enough, a world pandemic decided to complicate all of our lives. My priorities changed, and available time dwindled. Resources I hired to support my project, demonstrated EPIC levels incompetence. My plans to wrap up the month with new resources and a bang? Out the window. I felt like I failed.
The Reality
In the last 30 days I (with the help of more people than I can count) have:
Rebranded and rebuilt my website
Launched a new brand
Published 27 podcast episodes which received over 500 downloads
Highlighted the stories of 13 incredible women
Reconnected with and made new friends
I have shared quotes and profiles of women which has results in @20,000 views
Started writing my first and second book
Created new content for my website (including this post)
I highlight, engaged, educated and inspired women
I managed to do all the above while managing to be entirely engaged in my day job. Why on earth would I consider this to be a failure?
The Realization
The quest to be perfect, that demon that sits on all of our shoulders, got in my way.
I believe in allowing others to make mistakes. I believe in celebrating the smallest of victories. I believe we should focus our energies on completing things in a way that we can be proud. Pride allows us to stop and take satisfaction in what we accomplished.
Perfection is not a realistic expectation. To be perfect, EVERYTHING we do has to be free from flaws or defects. Is that pressure necessary? If you say yes, please comment and tell me why. I’d love to hear your point of view.
The Lesson
If the goal was perfection, I failed. If the goal was pride? I produced something for which I am very proud. Be PROUD, not PERFECT. Grown women define success on their own terms. The lesson? Measure this success by a barometer of pride, not perfection.