the best twenty percent

It’s been a week. It has been a good week, but one of those weeks that seems to keep going and going. The summer months seem to be full of weeks like this. Weeks that seem to go on forever and then are over all at once. I had many plans for what I was going to write about this week. But it seems that the more I plan, the less I get done. I have a feeling this problem has to do with my perfectionist tendencies. When I have so carefully laid out a plan I know think that once I begin working it can never go exactly as I plan, so what is the point of even starting? (don't worry there is a point to this post, you'll just have to bear with me for a bit while I find it).

 And here even as I'm writing this, thinking why even post anything at all this week if it isn’t going to be perfect, or amazing, or life changing. But so few things are ever really as  awe-inspiring as we believe they will be. 

 Does everything worth sharing have to be awe-inspiring or life altering though? 

 We have become accustomed to harshly judging or even laughing at those that post pictures of a meal they have eaten or shared a selfie of themselves in a new dress, or simply posting lyrics to a song they enjoy. What is wrong with sharing the random things in life that make you happy?

 We have gotten very wrapped up in curating the perfect lifestyle that is only maintainable in a square box or 140 characters. 

Social media is full of these carefully crafted thoughts and photos meant to showcase the best 20% of our lives. Because of these seemingly perfectly captured moments it can make what you truly want to share look messy in comparison. I have found I am very guilty of this exact thinking. I love to take pictures. I love sneaking photos of friends when they aren’t looking, taking photos of beautiful flowers, amazing food I’m about to eat, and just random moments I would like to keep forever. 

 None of my photos ever seem good enough to share. The pictures that I capture don’t have the same even lighting or perfectly blurred background that I see all over Instagram. So I don’t share the memories I want to share, because they don’t match the perfect 20% of my life I think is worth sharing.

 

 Lesson learned.

Today I am not sharing a blog post I had already written because I decided it just wasn’t good enough to share. And maybe it wasn’t ready to be shared yet, but deciding to not sharing anything at all if it isn’t going to be perfect is a slippery slope. Nobody is perfect, so how can I expect everything I create to be perfect? (see, I told you I would find a point). I have become obsessed with finding the most poetic way to say something, that I end up not saying anything at all. I try so hard to take the perfect photo that I forget to enjoy the moment.

This week I might not be sharing the post I had intended, but I am posting something. Hopefully someone will gain something from my half thought out ramblings.