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Perfection Called. I Didn’t Answer.
46 Plays4 days ago
This week, we’re canceling hustle culture, snubbing perfectionism, and embracing the wildly underrated art of being good enough. Because trying to be everything to everyone is exhausting, unsustainable, and—spoiler alert—it’s not necessary.
In this episode, Krista breaks down:
· The toxic myth of perfection and why it’s costing you your peace
· What “satisficing” is—and how it can actually make you happier than being the best
· How to let go of the gold stars and show up for your life without the burnout
· Why mediocrity in one area makes room for magic in another
One-liner truth bombs include:
· “You weren’t born to meet someone else’s checklist.”
· “Trying to reach perfection is like hugging a cloud—soggy, exhausting, and totally pointless.”
· “You can’t pour from an empty cup—or even a cracked one. Sometimes you just gotta put the cup down and go take a nap.”
This one’s for the perfectionists-in-recovery, the moms hiding in their car, the leaders running on empty, and anyone who needs to hear: You are enough. Exactly as you are. Even if the laundry isn’t folded
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Exhausted Sparrows Unite'
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to Exhausted Sparrows Unite. This is the podcast for the overextended, under-caffeinated, and wildly resilient among us, aka that means you.
Meet the Hosts: Krista and Chantelle
00:00:14
Speaker
I'm your host, Krista Jones, and I am with my beautiful co-host, Chantelle
Episode Theme: Embracing Mediocrity
00:00:19
Speaker
Schaefer. Today, we're going to talk about something that might make your inner overachiever self break out in hives.
00:00:26
Speaker
That is mediocrity. Yeah, I said it. We're not talking about greatness or excellence. We're not even talking about crushing it. We're just talking about showing up. Because here's the truth.
00:00:37
Speaker
Perfection is a scam. ah Trying to do it all perfectly is why so many of us feel like we're just failing. So if you've been waiting for someone to hand you a permission slip to be gloriously, intentionally average, consider this episode your permission
Mental Health Benefits of Lowered Expectations
00:00:52
Speaker
slip. We're going to talk about why lowering the bar might actually save your sanity how perfectionism is actually messing with your mental health and why good enough is not giving up.
00:01:04
Speaker
It is freedom. Mediocre mindset.
00:01:12
Speaker
Welcome to the Mediocre Podcast, where Chantel and I are killing it every
00:01:20
Speaker
Oh my goodness. It is so um interesting to see how many people have this perfection bone in them somewhere.
00:01:31
Speaker
We all have it. You know, sometimes it's hidden and it takes a while for other people to draw it out of us. But when they do, man, is it ugly? It is. Because perfectionism is impossible.
00:01:45
Speaker
It is impossible. You can't achieve it. No, there's too many things going on. Yeah. So why are you trying to?
Living Authentically: Acceptance Over Perfection
00:01:52
Speaker
Because that's what society tells us to do. See, this is what I'm saying. All of these podcasts we do kind of all just meld together into like one big point.
00:02:02
Speaker
And that's the whole reason we do this podcast is because we want you to live your authentic self. We want you to realize that just the way you are is good enough. You do not have to change anything about yourself.
00:02:15
Speaker
And if somebody doesn't like it, they should go pound sand. Oh, pound sand. would say kick rocks. I like pound sand though. I think my dad also, no, my poor parents are like, could you stop talking about us at every podcast? It looks like, you know, we were abusing you and they were not.
00:02:30
Speaker
They were not. um So perfection. What's perfect to one person, right? Is kind of meh to someone else. So the standards of perfection are also funky, right? Like what I consider to be ah perfect job, you may look at and say, i don't think that looks good at all. Right? Right.
00:02:53
Speaker
So that should be freeing to you because none of us have the same standard of perfection, which you can't achieve.
Societal Pressures and Perfectionism
00:03:03
Speaker
And we said like two minutes ago, but even if you try to, you wouldn't please everybody anyways.
00:03:10
Speaker
So why not just please yourself? Exactly. Well, because we're all people pleasers. That's the society we live in. We need to please everybody else. We're not worried about how we feel about something. We're worried about how everybody else feels about how we feel about something, right?
00:03:25
Speaker
Perfection is the enemy of progress. That's what Winston Churchill said. And I like that. I was like, that's a good point. And I think the problem sometimes with perfection is that then you keep moving the goalposts.
00:03:38
Speaker
Right? Well, yeah. As soon as you get there, it's not perfect. Right. Right. Or, ooh, if I did this and I thought this was perfection, I really could probably get to the next level of perfection.
00:03:52
Speaker
And then I think the thing with perfection is once you, you know, have to have everything tidy and in place and it's got to be done right, you're supposed to hit that every single time. And that is exhausting. And that's why we're all exhausted on this podcast.
00:04:07
Speaker
Right. Exhausted sparrows unite.
Perfectionism and Mental Health
00:04:13
Speaker
So perfection is really what we're gonna talk about today and how um not only can you what A, never achieve it and B, when you do achieve it, then it's like, that wasn't good enough, I gotta keep going.
00:04:26
Speaker
But also in trying to achieve it, it affects your mental health. And I think that's kind of what we really need to focus on today is that the statistics show that perfectionism is actually linked to anxiety and depression and burnout.
00:04:44
Speaker
People that are aiming for perfection are twice as likely to experience depression. Two times as likely so as those of us that are just, you know, free, fly by the seat of our pants people, mediocre people like me.
00:05:01
Speaker
You know what? You know what? Sometimes it's just great to wake up and be like, the day is going to be what it's going to be. It doesn't have to be perfect. And it's not going to be perfect. no So don't even put that thought into your head because you're in for disappointment.
00:05:13
Speaker
And there's a lot of, i think, anxiety that goes along with that and depression. And I think that if we could learn how to reframe our thoughts, which we've talked about in previous episodes, if we could learn how to reframe our thoughts so we don't set that standard so high for ourselves, then I think we would then be able, right, to take a lot of that pressure off.
Authenticity and the Beauty of Imperfection
00:05:42
Speaker
And i think that it would really put us in a better mental health headspace, not health space. Headspace. You'd probably also be healthy as well.
00:05:53
Speaker
And you're always chasing someone's definition of it, right? So like we said, you you're trying to reach someone else's ideal of what perfection should be and you're never going to get there.
00:06:09
Speaker
And that to me is sad and it's lonely. It is lonely. But Chantel and I want you both all you both to know there's like there's hope there more than two people listening.
00:06:21
Speaker
This is why we don't edit those so that you can just hear authentic podcast. podcast We want you guys to know that ah we're mediocre. We really are. We don't suffer from perfection. At least I don't in the least bit.
00:06:35
Speaker
You know, I had my moments, especially in motherhood. You know, I was a, I was a Pinterest mom or I tried to be a Pinterest mom. And let me tell you, there is no way that those moms have, a have work or more than one kid and don't have nannies because ah that little mermaid cake that you saw on Pinterest. No, I could not do that. Have I ever showed you Christians little mermaid cake? We really have one and it's awful. Oh, it's awful. How did I pick out Little Mermaid and you- That's weird. Maybe we've talked about it in a previous episode and it was just in the back of your mind, but that's exactly what we did. And it was it was the most angry, possessed Little Mermaid ever. It was awful. The children cried. It was bad. it was bad.
00:07:20
Speaker
But that is the thing, right? Like we do all have our moments, but- I think when you're able to free yourself up from that, you know, I say this all the time with our events here at Sparrows Nest.
Sparrows Nest Charity Introduction
00:07:31
Speaker
For those of you tuning in for the first time, and even those of you who are our lifelong friends now, um it's, you know, we can never talk about Sparrows Nest enough. That's the whole reason the podcast is going, because we're exhausted.
00:07:44
Speaker
We are founders, employees, bosses of this amazing charity here in the Hudson Valley, and we feed people that have cancer. And so we being exhausted working 70 hours a week and trying to do motherhood and do everything well, right, perfect, decided we just need to tear off that whole facade. We need to just lay our lives on the line so that other people can be like, that is what I actually relate to.
00:08:12
Speaker
And in that process, I really have to say, I love the events that we do here because we really are chill with everything we do.
00:08:26
Speaker
We don't have to go out of the way to have the best centerpieces. We don't have to go out of the way to have the best prizes. There doesn't need to be the best looking people giving you drinks when you walk in the door. I mean, that's fun.
00:08:39
Speaker
But every event that we do, i feel, Chantal, and maybe I'm wrong in this, but I feel that we really go into it knowing it doesn't have to be perfect because we keep our eye on the prize, which is somebody that has cancer needs money.
00:08:55
Speaker
We need money so that we can feed the person with cancer and make sure that they have a healthy, warm meal on the table. And perfectionism can't be a part of it No, no. And it's so much less stressful when you look at it and you go, the day is going to be what it's going to be. And at the end of the day, we're feeding people, we're helping
Embracing Imperfect Moments
00:09:18
Speaker
people.
00:09:18
Speaker
And those hiccups that happen, you can laugh about. They're not going to stress you out. They're not going to trip you up. And you just keep rolling with it. Absolutely. And I think we also have this this feeling that you know if you are somebody that comes to an event of ours and it ended up raining or you you know didn't feel you got enough food or you know that's really on you. We really honestly are not going to apologize for that because at the end of the day, we are giving you a service where you in return are giving us funding so that we can feed people that are sick
00:09:51
Speaker
And at the end of the day, I really think that is something that we're pretty good at. We really put it into perspective. It's not going to be a perfect event. If you're expecting a perfect event, ah we you should not be here.
00:10:04
Speaker
We are not a place for perfect people. We are a place where you can laugh, you know, when it rains on you like it did on the motorcycle event we did last weekend. what it But let me tell you, what an amazing group of people.
00:10:15
Speaker
Because five minutes from the end of this motorcycle run, the skies opened and it poured. It wasn't like, oh, it's going to be a spring shower. No, it poured.
00:10:27
Speaker
And not a single person said anything. Nobody complained. We had people who were picking up tables and chairs, drying them off. Everybody just rallied. And everybody had a great day and we raised money.
00:10:39
Speaker
And that's all that mattered. Yeah. And think about it. If you've got these perfection plans in place, you can't control the weather. So think about if you went out of your way to do all this stuff and you had all this anxiety and you spend weeks doing something, you cannot control it anyways.
00:10:55
Speaker
And that really what is what it is, right? In this universe, it does not matter what your perfect plan is. You cannot control the way that something is going to kind of you know, reveal itself.
00:11:06
Speaker
And it was an amazing day. And you know what? It was a lot of great memories. It wasn't a mediocre day. It was a fantastic day and it was not perfect in the least bit. And I think that is something that, you know, you should think about.
00:11:20
Speaker
What about those memories that you have when you burn dinner or something and then like you went out for pizza and the kids giggled the whole time about mommy just, you know, burnt the meatloaf. And like, those are cute, amazing memories.
00:11:33
Speaker
Nobody's having a lot of fun with your perfect dinner. And, you know, there's some events I go to that I'm like, this is way too perfect for me. It's way too stuffy. You know, it's way too thought out. I don't want to be here. You've spent way too much money trying to put this event on when you're really supposed to be raising money.
00:11:48
Speaker
So, you know, it is this, if you can just look at events like that, what honestly is the worst thing that can happen if your perfection doesn't shine
Social Media's Unrealistic Standards
00:12:01
Speaker
through? Mm-hmm.
00:12:02
Speaker
And are people really going to judge you? And if they are going to judge you, like, girl, you need some new friends. Yeah. I say that all the time. Like, if this is why you're mad at me, like, I've really got to think this through.
00:12:15
Speaker
Like, I don't know that I can, you know, I can't give you any more than that in our friendship. So you may, you know, maybe you need to move on, but you know, society, social media displays, we say this in all our podcasts. We said it in the first podcast that we did, and I should be saying the word episodes, but I do it all the time.
00:12:33
Speaker
Um, social media gives us these highlights and that's what we're comparing ourselves to, right? So in the first podcast episode, if you go back to that, that's really what the podcast is all about.
00:12:48
Speaker
It is about that we're looking at all of these highlights of people and these these goals that we can't achieve anyway.
00:13:00
Speaker
A 2018 study by the American Psychological Association said perfection is on the rise with more than 82% of millennials reporting significant stress that is directly linked to to their pressure to be perfect. 82%.
00:13:20
Speaker
eighty to person And perfect for who? Perfect for what? Right. Is that perfection in your job? Is that perfection in your life? What is perfect in your life mean? Because perfect in my life is not what's perfect in your life. How do you even judge that?
00:13:35
Speaker
Exactly. So why you stressing? Right. Sometimes my perfect is um I walk in the door at three o'clock and my pajamas go on. That's my perfect. Right? so Let me tell you, last night, there were dishes left in the sink and I left them in the sink. My mom, we've talked about this before, would never leave a dish in the sink.
00:13:53
Speaker
But I was like, no, I walked away from it. And we're going to talk about that a little bit further in the podcast about, well, so what do we do in order for us to be able to let go of some of that pressure of of being perfect, right?
00:14:07
Speaker
Right. And here's the thing, being perfect is an energy zapper, right? Because there's this relentless pursuit of excellence. And that means you're expending energy all the time to be creative.
00:14:21
Speaker
And I have none of that. Well, you do. No, I don't. You do. No, Chantel, this is the authentic podcast. Listen, sitting here with you and all of a sudden you'll be like, oh, this event, we could do it this way and we can do that. You're creative, maybe not in the artistic sense, but you have creativity in other ways. Thank you. I'll take I'm learning to take compliments. That was episode, i don't know, 33. I'm not sure. don't even know what that was.
00:14:46
Speaker
But that is a good point, right? It's zapping of your energy. It is mentally exhausting trying to have it right all the time.
00:15:01
Speaker
So good is actually great. Right. Think about that. Being good enough can free up mental space. it can free up your energy.
Setting Realistic Expectations for Life
00:15:13
Speaker
And then it kind of takes the pressure off. It allows us to enjoy life without us thinking about failing because our bar is not set that high anymore. So we're not going to fail.
00:15:25
Speaker
What a better way to live. Right? Yeah. Like my mermaid cake looks like she just stabbed a little crusty crab. What's his name? Sebastian.
00:15:36
Speaker
I mean, what's the worst thing that could happen other than nightmares? But you know what? Now you have those memories forever. like yeah Nobody came to a Jones birthday party after that ever again, ever again.
00:15:48
Speaker
but it lowers, it right, and reduces your stress. It will also, they say, enhance your productivity when you're mediocre. Really? Because you fixate, we might know a person or two, on something little that's really not that important.
00:16:05
Speaker
It's got to be perfect. You're fixating on that. So you have no room left to be productive anywhere else because you're tripping yourself up over that really little thing that nobody's even noticing but you, and then you're also getting your priorities all messed up.
00:16:21
Speaker
I never thought of it that way. Well, I'm glad that I was able to tell you that. You just opened a window and the light shone in.
00:16:29
Speaker
I don't know what that means. Wow. If you come to this podcast for inspirational quotes, Chantel has them all the time. Oh my gosh. so perfectionism leads to burnout.
00:16:45
Speaker
Burnout is it not a badge of honor. hate using my mother again. poor mom. She, she could not listen to this podcast. She doesn't even know how to hit play the poor thing. So, but my mom used to be the type that, you know, would not only have to, it would all have to be perfect. Our house was perfect and we were perfect in our clothes.
00:17:06
Speaker
I mean, we didn't have a lot of clothes, but the clothes we had, you know, whatever. her hair, whatever. She just wanted to portray this image. And because of that, she would burn herself out.
00:17:17
Speaker
And then she would take on like this martyr role to let us all know about how she did all this stuff. And none of us appreciated any of this stuff. Burnout is not a badge of honor. We don't want to hear it.
00:17:30
Speaker
We roll our eyes. yeah I'm like, please stop talking. Yeah. You know, when you get that list of like 15 spirit days in a row and I'm like, hmm, stripe day, here's one stripe sock. Good luck.
00:17:46
Speaker
I used to tell my kids that. I think I said this on another episode. I would tell my kids in June, I apologize. I am going to miss an orchestra concert. I'm going to miss a field day. I'm going to miss that you were supposed to wear green.
00:17:59
Speaker
Something is going to be missed. School photos. School photos. Spring pictures. If you haven't heard Chantel's story. And by the way, they did look adorable when she got it back. They really did. But again, like I had to release perfection there because I used to like make sure my kids were all put together and I would pick out their clothes.
00:18:16
Speaker
And it was killing me. fighting with them. And I finally was like, wear whatever you want. Oogie boogie hat, have fun. Great. Look fantastic. And think about that three hours into school. Anyways, I mean, their hair, I mean, they've been at recess.
00:18:28
Speaker
Yeah. Forget it. Yeah. It's not going to work out the way you want it to anyways.
Perfectionism's Impact on Health
00:18:32
Speaker
Being overworked, right? Being burnt out is dangerous. chronic stress, right? That whole thing actually not only makes us feel mentally like in this rut, but it takes a toll on our physical bodies.
00:18:46
Speaker
I mentioned in other episodes before, i had a time when I was starting the charity, um you know, and just a lot of stressful stuff going on. And this was years ago. And it actually manifested into, i thought ALS. I couldn't swallow.
00:19:00
Speaker
i had problems with my right leg. It was dragging. And, you know, they were looking at my brain. i had, um, Oh, what is that called on your brain? I had i have lesions on my brain. So they were like, Oh, I don't know what this is. Maybe it's Lyme disease and that's, I've told this story before.
00:19:15
Speaker
And they ended up finding out it was, it was stress. Like when he physically just said, Krista, like none of this seems to make sense to me. Like, what does your day look like? What are you do Like, finally, he's like, you are stressed.
00:19:31
Speaker
and And that's what happens with perfection going over and over and over this stuff in your head. It's really dangerous. The cost of doing it all is often undoing your wellbeing.
00:19:42
Speaker
It's often affecting not just your mental state, but your, your physical state. Yeah, there's been a big push on cortisol. Cortisol has been a big hot topic lately. And that stress builds up cortisol in your body and that affects your weight and your health. and You bring up a good point. It does.
00:20:03
Speaker
Your weight. That's another thing. We as women, you know, fixate on that a lot. I'd like to say that I'm trying to love myself more than but we do fixate on that a lot. And when you are stressed, it is really hard to lose weight. Your body is like, I am in fight or flight.
00:20:19
Speaker
I don't know what's going on. I am holding on to the 17 Reese's peanut butter eggs. They are the best consistency. I am holding onto that. I am not letting that go, Krista, because what is happening?
00:20:31
Speaker
It's true. Cortisol levels. Yeah. We are actually in a future episode going to be talking about cortisol and menopause and all of these other issues too, because it's really interesting how all of these things in our body really affect our physical health. I'm excited to do that. It's going a lot of fun.
Focusing on Personal Strengths
00:20:52
Speaker
So how about letting yourself be mediocre in some areas and then thrive in others? Makes sense, right? Like in or we can't be 100% on.
00:21:06
Speaker
So maybe we need to pick and choose where are the areas that I need to shine a little more than others. Like if I have to do a dance with my daughter on stage, hypothetically at Noxon Road Elementary School.
00:21:20
Speaker
That might be an area I want to shine in because- You want to disappoint her. I got a lot of parents out there looking at Mrs. Jones's moves. That might be more important than me, you know, trying to do my thank you notes in calligraphy. I don't know. I'm making this up right now because- Do you know calligraphy?
00:21:40
Speaker
I do. Oh. I mean, I haven't i't done it in a long time because I don't have that kind of creativity. What I'll do, Chantel, is I'll do some calligraphy for you and you can talk about how that looks on the next episode.
00:21:55
Speaker
I'm excited. Because guess what? I don't really care that much. It's not that good. ah It's kind of an outdated skill. Maybe. Hobby. right I don't know very many people know calligraphy. I have a daughter getting married, and if we want to spend just $2,000, we can have a calligurus.
00:22:14
Speaker
like I can print her labels. Yes, you could do that. We can have one of those people ah address the envelopes. It's like $10 an envelope. I don't know. That's a lot of Something like that.
00:22:25
Speaker
So if we stop kind of wasting time being a 10 in every category, you're actually going to see that, you know, we average out, right? Like if you do an A up here and a C there, that's that's a B. That's mediocre. Way to be.
00:22:41
Speaker
oh my gosh. So embracing our imperfections is strength. We've talked about that before, right? That, um you know, you have to embrace whoever you are.
00:22:54
Speaker
And that's what makes us human, right? So there's going to be skills that I'm better at than you are. So instead of me trying to be as good in Chantel skills, which which are quite many, thing crocheting, knitting, creating, all of that, like that that's a crochet.
00:23:14
Speaker
I don't
00:23:17
Speaker
even know Chantel-y. I don't even know what that was. are we so loopy today? You know what? Because we have not eaten. We'll eat after this. But that is, the... I need to shine in my areas.
00:23:29
Speaker
You need to shine in yours. I thrive where I can. You thrive where you can. And the rest, we flop like a fish and we just hope somebody gets us to water. Ooh. I made that up. I didn't even know.
00:23:40
Speaker
at that. at that. Do you think anybody listens anymore to any of these episodes? Well, if we're out in public and somebody says flop around like a fish and somebody gets you to water.
00:23:50
Speaker
Could we give you something if you say something about flopping like a fish? Why not? Could we give you a t-shirt? You get a Sparrows Nest t-shirt if you see us in public like and you just say flop like a fish.
00:24:03
Speaker
There you go. You have been tasked. You have been tasked. It's called opportunity cost, right? So it means when you say yes to one thing, I say this all the time, you're saying no to something else.
00:24:16
Speaker
You have to decide where do you choose to spend your time because you can't spend it everywhere. We talked about that also on another episode. Are we going to run out of things to say? I don't know.
00:24:27
Speaker
we're pretty We're pretty creative. I feel we're witty as well today. We're very good today. There's some good banter. Okay, okay. I know that I've got to get you how we can stop being perfect.
00:24:39
Speaker
And as I've said before, Shontel and I have no problem with that. So, all right let's talk about a few more things here, right? So, um when you allow yourself, right, the space to experiment around and be mediocre without any harsh judgment, harsh judgment,
00:24:56
Speaker
you actually foster a more creative environment because you're not afraid. So you're doing like all these great creative things, which I actually love. And vulnerability is important as well because you need to make it known that you're not perfect.
00:25:13
Speaker
You're never going to be perfect. I'm not going to strive to be perfect. I don't expect anything from my friends to be perfect because when you humble yourself, I feel, and you're vulnerable and you talk about that,
00:25:24
Speaker
I try to do that even in the workplace, like with, with dumb things. Like if I mess something up or, you know, I'm the one that I don't know, made a post go off that, you know, said, you know, eat a pony instead of eat a cupcake or don't know. I don't know.
00:25:39
Speaker
Like I try really hard to own it. And then go, ah you know, I'm not perfect because people need to see that you're you're vulnerable, you're normal, you're human, you're authentic, just like them. If you can't be around vulnerable people, right? And you don't have that kind of connection, you are always going to be afraid to just let your authentic self out.
00:26:00
Speaker
So basically I'm telling you, weed out your friend group, people. Weed them out. Weed them out. And I have to say, like, that's an it's an important thing to show your your kids. um My older daughter is very artistic, but when she was little, i say a little, but probably five, six, if she would do something artsy and it didn't come out exactly how she wanted, she would lose her mind. And I'd have to put all the craft stuff away and be like, we can't do this because it's not going to be perfect every time you are not perfect. I am not perfect. Nobody is perfect.
00:26:32
Speaker
And that's the beauty of it. You learn from those mistakes. And it took a long time for her to be able to accept that every time I put pen to paper or pencil to paper, it's not going to be perfect because I'm not perfect.
00:26:43
Speaker
Right. And they say you have to say, you know, these thoughts, these words, like you have to say them seven times to somebody before it even sinks in. Because a lot of times we're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you have to keep reaffirming that, that you're not going to be perfect. It's okay that you're not perfect.
00:26:58
Speaker
We love you because you're unique. You're your own person. And finding a group that accepts you for that, um I think is really important, which kind of leads us to like the strategies of how in the world do you do you let it all go? Like, you know, that is one of the things, you know, that that you do need to do.
00:27:16
Speaker
So things like breaking tasks into manageable chunks and then celebrating little wins.
Celebrating Small Wins and Mindfulness
00:27:24
Speaker
right? We right now are running a campaign that we would love to get. I think we have this astronomical amount up like $10,000 right now. I think we're at 500 days, half over.
00:27:37
Speaker
You know what? I'm not going to stress over that. It's not going to be a perfect day. I'm kind of looking towards the day and seeing it may not go that way. And I'm okay. Guess what? We got 500 bucks. It's more than we had this morning. And a lot of creative and good things came out of all of the work and the planning that we put into this day that we can use for future events.
00:27:56
Speaker
that's true. So sometimes putting your mediocre self to work and doing things and be like, all right, you know, I just kind of got by. You're able though to continue building on that. And that's kind of what we did today, right? So taking things that are working well and celebrating small wins, even if that's not what you were picturing.
00:28:18
Speaker
is a big thing for your mental health. Because right we we we're the only people that can react to the situations around us. So you certainly can be negative Nelly. We did an episode on that.
00:28:29
Speaker
Or you can turn it around and go, all right, there's 500, which is still amazing. right Mindfulness practices, we talk about that a lot. And we actually had um Jen Arco Green come in gosh, I don't know, months ago, and talk as well too about how important it is for you to use mindfulness activities, right? That's ah meditation, that could be Pilates, that could be you pray.
00:29:00
Speaker
It's just giving yourself time, not just in the morning, but But whenever you're getting a little bit frazzled, it's kind of like I need to redirect myself. I need to quiet my mind.
00:29:11
Speaker
And when your mind is quiet, that's when you can hear yourself. That's when you can say, all right, Krista, we're not going to get 10,000 in. But what is the worst that happens with that? Right? And then you could go through the worst of the worst and it could be kind of bad, but then you pivot. it All right, well then maybe I just need to do this so that I can do this.
00:29:30
Speaker
So mindfulness activities, I think are so important to this. And they say that by by doing those type of mindfulness activities, um you can actually reduce your risk burnout by like 35%.
00:29:44
Speaker
Wow. Five minutes a day. Just five minutes. You know, it's so funny. My watch always tells me, it's mindfulness time, take some time to think or meditate. And I'm like, nope, but maybe now I'm gonna listen to my watch.
00:29:55
Speaker
And I think it's hard to to start doing that. um I have a personality that doesn't do well, because if my mind is empty, it automatically gets filled with all these different things. But you don't really need to do five minutes a day. You could do 30 seconds, and then you could build to 45 seconds. Like you could slowly train yourself to do it.
00:30:15
Speaker
I've been told anybody, even Krista Jones, can, you know, become blank slate. So I have such a hard time with that. i do too. Like even like you go for a massage and you're like, okay, I'm going to relax. And then I'm like, I need to go to the grocery store and I need to buy pickles and I need to do this.
00:30:32
Speaker
It just never stops. I think maybe we do an episode on that. Maybe we have to do an episode on mindfulness and our minds racing and, you know, things that we can do in order to quiet the mind because all of this, all of it, including, you know, perfectionism starts
Final Thoughts on Imperfection
00:30:50
Speaker
in your mind. It starts with something that you believe, you know, about yourself. That's not true.
00:30:59
Speaker
It's not true. We were not made in the same bodies. We're not the same people. we We all have different unique skills. Like you can't be good at everything. And we say that in almost every single episode.
00:31:15
Speaker
So if this is episode seven for you, hopefully it's sinking in. Seven episodes. Seven times. Seven times. I really want to know though. I think we, yeah. Yeah. Remember, you got to say flop like a fish. So we need somebody to say that to us this week.
00:31:30
Speaker
That would be great. I love that. And you're going to get a Sparrows Nest t-shirt. And then, yeah, you can always write us. You can always go to our website, to the Get Involved section, write us a little note. and Tell us, tell us what you're doing in order to get some mindfulness. So the takeaway today, dear exhausted Sparrow is this.
00:31:49
Speaker
You don't have to be amazing anything. Some days surviving is winning. Cereal is dinner. The email goes out with tons of typos like k Krista Jones does all the time.
00:32:01
Speaker
The laundry lives in the dryer for a week. It's fine. We all do it. That doesn't mean you're not perfect in your own way. Anyone that says otherwise, Kindly show them to the door.
00:32:13
Speaker
This episode is giving you a breath of fresh air. Then please share it with another overachiever better yet, your messiest, realist friend who maybe already even gets it.
00:32:24
Speaker
Ask them what they do. And remember, you don't have to be perfect to be powerful. Most people just want you present. Thank you for being here. i am Krista Jones with my co-host Chantel Schaefer.
00:32:38
Speaker
And we hope that you like the podcast. Please share it. Go onto our website for information if you want to know more about our charity at sparrowsnestcharity.org. And remember, until next time, be kind to yourself and each other.