The other day I went out for a run and ended up doing 9.65km.
If you’re anything like me, you know exactly what my brain did next:
“Well that’s annoying. It’s basically 10km. You may as well add the extra 0.35km.”
But I didn’t.
I stopped when I got home (10km was never the goal, it’s just how far I got) and carried on with my day. And nothing bad happened.
Around the same time, a friend told me she’d read three-quarters of a book before realising she just… wasn’t enjoying it. Instead of forcing herself to push through “because she was so close,” she put it down and picked up a book she actually wanted to read.
That really stuck with me and I thought it was so powerful that she recognised she didn’t need to keep going just for the sake of it.
I spent a long time believing that if something isn’t done fully, properly, or to the end, then it somehow doesn’t count. If I can’t do it all, there’s no point doing any of it.
But I’ve learnt that this mindset often stops us from starting in the first place (even if I still battle with it!).
Something is usually better than nothing.
9.65km is still a run.
Three-quarters of a book is still reading.
Ten minutes of movement is still movement.
Whether it’s a few pages or a short walk/run – it all counts.
Of course, context matters. There are times when following through is important. But there are also times when letting go of the need for perfection gives us freedom – freedom to start, to experiment, and to choose what actually feels good for us.
If you’ve ever caught yourself thinking, “If I can’t do it perfectly, there’s no point doing it at all,” I want to gently challenge that.
What if doing something is enough for today?
That shift alone can make things feel lighter and much more doable.
This blog post might not be perfect, but it’s good enough to get my message across (that’s what I’m telling myself in order to stop re-reading it over and over!). I hope you can take something useful from it.