Take {imperfect} Action!

Ali Edwards had some great links on her blog today that forced me to *investigate*. Here's another one:
Taking imperfect action is the perfect action to take (Christine Kane)
This is so perfect to me. I love the whole idea of embracing imperfection, and I've been working on this concept for a while now.
It's not easy.

I see it most when I am creating. Phrases like, "I can't use that fantastic {insert new supply or special material here} until I have just the perfect picture to put with it." Or, "I need to find just the right supplies to create a page with these perfect photos."

But I also see it in other areas of my life. I used to buy journal after journal to write in daily. Needless to say, I have journal after journal that has writing on the first five or so pages and then nothing. Why? Because once I missed a day, or God-forbid a week, the journal was no longer perfect, and no longer worthy of using. I am happy to now say that while I still have several journals strewn throughout the house, many are filled (some to the very end) with all kinds of thoughts, doodles, drawings, sketches, quotes, lists, ideas, phone numbers, websites, a little bit of everything imperfect.

Years ago, my grandmother taught me to knit. As soon as I made a mistake, I would unravel the whole thing. I would knit and unravel, knit and unravel. Last year I started a knitting project. I did unravel it once; I had to--a friend pointed out I had knit the whole thing backwards. But I finished it the other day into a small purse, complete with all its imperfect imperfections. My very first finished knitting project.

I have a friend who is a huge perfectionist. She would like to start scrapbooking, but insists she's too analytical to be creative. She once spent an entire evening choosing the perfect color scheme for her Christmas cards. She never did make those cards. She wants to make her mother a special book as a gift, but has spent hours pouring over the internet in search of ideas and products. She is paralyzed by her need for perfection. I adore and love this friend of mine. I see pieces of myself in her. I know how paralyzing that perfectionism can be.
Reading about Christine Kane's blog post tonight reiterated and succinctly verbalized what I already know: doing something imperfectly allows for lots of room for improvement; if you do something "perfectly" and fail, there's no need to try again; taking imperfect action allows you to conquer your fears.

Imperfect action is better than no action at all!

And now, I'm off to email my friend with Christine's blog in hopes that it will spur her into action.