“There’s more value in the imperfectly visible than the perfectly hidden.” 👀 ~Stephanie Pollock

how can you show up imperfectly today? (#359)

This week,

Stephanie Pollock

wrote a post on LinkedIn that really spoke to me:

One of the most insidious parts of being a perfectionist is watching other people do the thing you want to do, without nearly the experience, insight or quality you'd bring to it.

“Humph,” you sigh to yourself. “How is that getting traction, when it's average at best?”

Because it’s out there in the world: imperfect AND public.

Somewhere along the way, that person decided to put their words, their ideas, their art, their strategy up for public consumption rather than keeping it tucked away until it was perfect.

They understand that there’s more value in the imperfectly visible than the perfectly hidden.

Great things are rarely great out of the gate. They evolve into something great, through time, feedback and continuous improvement. And that requires other people engaging with it.

[and also, greatness isn’t always the right measure anyway]

Whatever it is that you’re holding back on -- an idea, an opinion, a piece of art, a project, an offer or a decision -- ask yourself how many more people you’re willing to watch go after it while you wait until some mythical moment when it all comes together in perfect harmony.

Life is short, friends. Just yesterday I learned that a friend of a friend passed away suddenly. She was 48 - two years older than me.

There’s absolutely no time for perfect.

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Powerful right? What is that thing you want to do? How can you take a baby step forward? What can you do to show up imperfectly?

For me, as a baby step forward, I have an ask and a gift:

🙋🏾‍♀️ An Ask

I am setting a goal of booking 3 paid speaking gigs this year. 🎤 If you know of one, I’d love an intro. (You can learn more about my speaking and facilitator offerings here.)

🎁 A Gift

What are you struggling with right now? What’s holding you back? How can I help? Reply and let me know.

I’ll send you a quick Loom video next week to answer your questions (and hopefully get you moving forward).

On to the picks!

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Note: This email may contain affiliate links. If you click through my link and make a purchase, I may receive “thank you money” at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products that I use and love.  

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#ease 🫶🏾

In this section, I plan to provide things/tips/resources that are helping me with caregiving, biz, self-care, and juggling in general. In the hopes that it’ll inspire you as well.

I cleaned out a kitchen cabinet this past week and found that I had quite a bit of expired canned goods in there. (time flies, amirite??) The cabinet got cleaner, and I have to say I felt a little bit lighter. It made me want to find more things to throw away because I do feel that sometimes physical clutter can affect your mental space as well.

Is there a cabinet or drawer you can clean out over the next week? Or, as a baby step, is there one thing you can throw away?

If you have found ways to make your life easier, please share, and I’d love to feature them here as well.

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#loves 😍

• 🎧. Listening: Focus Mix - I haven’t been big on “focus” music as a genre in the past, but

  Chris Guillebeau
  came out with a Spotify playlist recently that’s really awesome. And with much of my work requiring much more thinking and writing (less execution), my typical music with lyrics is harder to listen to. After searching for more focus-themed playlists, I saw that Spotify also curates a Focus Mix for their listeners. (Mine includes a lot of piano covers and instrumental tracks of songs I listen to often, which is cool.)

• 📺. Watching: Alias. With this overwhelming season, I am definitely trying to prioritize self-care, and I decided that I needed a comfort show. Alias with Jennifer Garner was such a hit when it was on TV. She’s a spy working for an organization posing as the CIA, but it is really a criminal organization, and then she becomes a double agent to bring them down. The outfits, the aliases, the music, the episode cliffhangers. Yep, nostalgia at its finest.

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#reads

The Part Time Creator Manifesto

“Being on social media exposed me to a lot of hustle porn constantly telling me to quit my job. That freedom is an all-or-nothing nirvana, and once you taste it, you don’t go back. Isn’t that how this movie script is supposed to go?

I want a new script for Part Time Creators. We need to define what it is, why it’s worth doing, make it work, then make it cool.”

I love to see anything in support of side hustling and part-time entrepreneurship. This one is on my to-read list because there is much to digest here.

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7 Hacks I Learned From 'Atomic Habits' That Changed My Life–And Will Change Yours Too

“Oftentimes, we look at athletes or successful business leaders and wonder how they got to where they are and how they accomplished so much. The answer is that they started small and never stopped.”

The power of baby steps. I love the idea of the two-minute rule and will think of some ways to use that to add some more movement to my days. Which hack resonates with you?

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#icymi

• 😍. Last issue’s top pick: 27 Life-Changing Micro Habits That Require Only A Few Minutes (three weeks in a row!!)

• 🎤. Need an awesome speaker/facilitator? Hire me.

• 🔍. Curious about my process for doing this newsletter every week? Go behind the scenes in this 1-hour training.

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#lifevibes

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