in case i forget

I am a worrier. I am a perfectionist. I am a control freak.

Because of these not-so-appreciated aspects of my personality, I sometimes put a lot of pressure on myself to do everything right. To always have a plan. To be in control. To have everything together all the time. And frankly, it stresses me out.

But good news: I'm beginning to learn that it doesn't have to be that way. And it shouldn't be that way. Because guess what? Life isn't about perfection. It's not about scoring 100% on every test. It's not about being flawless. Life is about doing what you can with what you have. It's about striving every day to be a little bit better than you were the day before. It's about recognizing your weaknesses and actively working toward making them your strengths.

Life is about progression, not perfection. It's about direction, not speed. 

Those two statements have become my mantra lately. Every day I wake up and, after cursing the morning for arriving so quickly, I remind myself that it's okay to slip up. It's okay to make mistakes. It's okay to feel what you're feeling. All of these things are okay, as long as you are working toward a better you.

 Heavenly Father knows you. He knows your strengths and your limitations. He knows that despite your best efforts, you are going to fail sometimes. He knows your heart. He knows your soul. He knows your wants and desires. He knows how hard you try and how desperately you want to make Him proud of you. He knows how easy it is to get discouraged when things don't go quite as planned. He knows your grief, your pain, and your sorrow. He knows your joys, your successes, your triumphs.

AND HE LOVES YOU PERFECTLY. 

He doesn't expect perfection. He only expects progression. He knows that some of us progress more slowly than others and that's okay. 

I wrote this as a reminder to myself. Because some days I forget all of the things that I just wrote. Some days, I lapse back into thinking that I will never be enough because I'm not perfect and because I make mistakes. And on those days, I feel lost and scared. I don't like those days. 

So I just repeat my mantra over and over again, in hopes that someday, I won't have to remind myself. 

Progression, not perfection. Direction, not speed. Progression, not perfection. Direction, not speed.