You’re allowed to take imperfect action in the direction of what you want. Especially now.

“But I want it to be custom designed. And I need to change the font. And also maybe I need real headshots?”

It’s 2008 and I’m sitting on a futon in my “garden level” (read: basement) apartment, talking at my then-boyfriend about the blog I want to create.

I, of course, have grand visions for it.

There will be none of this free Blogspot template nonsense for me. If I’m going to do it, I want to do it really, really well and I’m not going to start until everything is 100% the way I want it.

“Sure, Babe,” my web developer boyfriend says in that supportive-but-non-committal way specific to 20-something boyfriends. “I’ll code something for you when I’ve got free time.”

The free time and the custom designed website never really happen. Ultimate frisbee and craft beers consume my boyfriend’s time, reading about how to blog and then not blogging consumes mine.

But one day, after a particularly stressful day at my $16-an-hour ESL teaching job, I come home, grab one of those previously-maligned Blogspot templates, and launch my deeply imperfect blog into the world.

I MEAN LOOK. (2008 Sarah loved this shot glass in Wall, South Dakota.)

And over the last 11 years (!!!) I have very imperfectly made my way towards a successful business I love.

I have published so many typos. I have launched products only four (FOUR!) people bought. I ran my business from a $200 Netbook, a yahoo email address, and coffee shop wifi because I couldn’t afford my own.

It was wildly imperfect and not always comfortable, but it still got me where I wanted to go.

I know that some of us are using this strange time to reassess our goals and what we want out of life.

Maybe you’re trying to learn a new language, or develop a new professional skill set, or build a morning meditation habit.

But this is not an ideal time, we’re all stressed out, so after some fits and starts you give up.
You are allowed to take imperfect action in the direction of what you want. Share on XMeditating three days a week is better than meditating zero times a week.

Half-watching a Youtube tutorial on email marketing is better than not watching it at all.

Half-assing DuoLingo Spanish is better than no-assing DuoLingo.

So I guess what I’m saying is:

1. You don’t have to wait for everything to be perfect to take action in the direction of what you want (P.S. There is no perfect time for anything, ever.)

2. Consistent, imperfect action will get you so much further than infrequent, perfect action. 

Photo by Connor McSheffrey on Unsplash