Fighting perfectionism

I bet that most people, when they think of a perfectionist, have an image of an impeccably turned out person who has everything in their life under tight control. A house where you'd be scared to put things down or even to walk in case you messed stuff up.

I'm not that kind of perfectionist! I'm what I like to call a lazy perfectionist, in that if I don't think I will be able to do something 'perfectly', then I generally don't do it at all. Which is all very well, but I end up living a life I'm not happy with.

So I'm trying to make this my new mantra. Because the number of things I've wanted to do, but haven't even bothered trying because it 'wouldn't be perfect', is quite depressing. Because I really want to at least *try* to live the life of my dreams. And, I want my little boy to grow up thinking that it is better to try and fail than to never try anything.

Would you believe that I played the piano for years and years? And practised (fairly) regularly. So I *can* do it.

I tend to opt for the 'path of least resistance' - but that's also the path of low satisfaction...

What about you?

Home

We are lucky enough to own (well, you know, paying the bank for it) a gorgeous block of land with a fairytale cottage, right on the edge of the Dandenong Ranges forest. It's steep - not a great deal of flat land to work with. It gets a little bit scary in bad weather, as these gum trees have a bad habit of falling down.

But it's home. Actually, it's feeling more and more like home lately. For a long time it felt like a terrible mistake - the house was unfinished (still is really), and we were both working in the city - over an hour commute each way. But now, with a toddler running around claiming all the territory as "mine!", and with uncountable hours of labour (mostly hubby's, but also friends and hired help), it's starting to feel like it really is home.

As my husband says, "we're not bloody moving now, not after all the time and money we've poured into it!"

Love - Honour - Cherish ...

So I want to share my journey, perhaps to feel some sort of accountability for acting on my dreams, for the choices I make. So I hope this blog will help me with that, and maybe strike some chords for others.