making it fun

Sometimes—and this could be just me, so bear with me—I don’t trust it when things are easy.

Most of the time, I push myself. Hard.

I spend my time relentlessly, just, I don’t know, trying.

Consistently, trying.

Trying to do the best I can in whatever arena that is.

I try to write the most well-written story I can with deep meaning and layers. I’m thorough at work. When I cook, I try to find something that’s exceptional. Whatever.

But I note that while standards are a thing that’s often good and excellence is cool, there’s an awful lot of pressure in always striving.

Sometimes, I need a release valve.

Sometimes, I just want to have a little fun.

Sometimes, I need to not care so much about [the thing I’m doing] being better than anything I’ve ever done before.

I don’t always need to be in competition with my past self.

This is my reminder that not everything needs to be a struggle for perfection and excellence.

I’m writing a book right now, and I’m grinning as I write it. There are a few scenes in there that have clichéd meet-cute stuff. They made me smile to write. But I worry because I’m not sure they’re next level stuff. In fact, I’m pretty sure they’re not.

And part of me tells myself I can do better. I worry that if it’s too easy, it’s no good.

But the other part of me is just having so much fun with it, I don’t really care.

So, I think, for now, I’m going to stick with fun.

Sometimes, the way my brain works, is I believe if it’s too easy it’s not worth doing. I worry that I’ll coast. Repeat myself. Not bring it to the next level. That no one will like it.

But sometimes if it’s easy, it might be that I’m in the flow, and it’s the right thing to do.

If this is you, just a little reminder to let yourself off the hook every once in a while. You can still be pretty damned good at whatever it is you do—and have fun along the way.