🍽️Sometimes, it just has to be edible

Being a mom to 3 young adults and a career woman, life can get crazy sometimes. Sitting with my kids for dinner each night is one non-negotiable I’ve stuck with as much as possible. However, I often joke about how the mental energy I use to figure out dinner every day could probably solve world peace if I redirected it to that. My usual criteria: nutritious, balanced, minimally processed, can’t be the same thing over and over again, should be reasonably inexpensive (we aren’t eating steak every night), and it’s gotta taste good. I used

One evening I just finished cooking and I told my daughter dinner was ready. I commented about how I didn’t know if it would taste any good, but it was ready nonetheless. Her response to me… “Mom, sometimes it just has to be edible.” That remark stuck with me because she’s absolutely right. Sometimes dinner just has to be edible. It doesn’t always have to be a big elaborate to do. Dinner with my kids isn’t about a four course meal, it isn’t about perfect presentation and it definitely isn’t about me pretending to be a renowned chef. It’s about the time we get to spend together, connecting and talking about our day. The food? Well it just has to fill their bellies. 

The idea of dinner just needing to be edible started popping up in other elements of my life. The message behind it? Things don’t have to be perfect all the time. The closet you want to reorganize? Do it one step at a time. The puzzle you started? Do a few pieces and walk away. The outfit you’re throwing on to go to the store? No one is actually looking, not in the way we think they are. The diet you’re starting on Monday? Just make one small change, even if it is to drink more water. 

Too often I, myself, and a lot of women I connect with struggle with perfectionism. We strive for it, we chase it constantly yet it remains illusive. The failure in obtaining perfection is insidious and feeds feelings of inadequacy, deficiency leaving us chasing perfection even harder. What if we stopped? What if we started challenging ourselves to truly look at what we need in the moment? What if we stepped into a place where we loved ourselves with compassion and stopped fueling feelings of inadequacy? 

I’m learning myself that being proud of your results and having your worth tied to them are two entirely different things. I’ve learned that wanting to change from a place of love is very different from feeling broken and needing to fix it. I’ve started to see the paralysis that we experience when perfection is the goal. I was stuck in that paralysis for years, especially in my business. I’ve started and stopped building a website and creating content for social media more than once because it wasn’t perfect. I’ve recognized the circling thoughts, the indecision and the tightness in my chest that occurs. I’m also learning to release this kind of thinking. I take a deep breath and I remind myself “it just has to be edible”. Next time you notice yourself caught in the paralysis of perfectionism, I hope you’ll hear the loving part of you saying “It just has to be edible”.