Sloppy Success: What is it and why is it important?

It is two days after the time change, my kids’ Spring break, and my husband’s week of vacation. My youngest son had friends stay the night last night and they went to bed ridiculously late and were awake incredibly early. I have a ton of stuff to get done today. My computer is running extremely slow. Kids are crying. Their parents (yes, I am talking about myself) are yelling. Even our toilet is clogged this morning.

To say that it has been “one of those days” is an absolute understatement. I was working on a different blog to post this morning, but it seemed ingenuine after the morning we have had. So, I decided to start over with the words “sloppy success beats perfect failure” ringing in my ears.

I don’t know if you have ever heard that saying before, but it is a saying that my life coach uses and it is something that helped me through some of my darkest days. On days like today when nothing goes as planned and you feel like throwing in the towel completely, this saying is something that can go a long way to help you lift yourself up by your shoestrings and move forward.

So, what does it mean?

You would never guess this based on how much of a mess my house usually is and you wouldn’t guess it by how unkept my children (and myself, at times) can be, but I do struggle with perfectionism. I struggle to the point of throwing my hands in the air and saying, “What’s the point? It’ll never be done the way that I want it done, anyway!” so I just never get started.

I cannot even tell you the number of things that I have planned to do but it didn’t go as this list maker planned it to go, so I just never finished it or it was totally overwhelming to begin with, so I never even started.

Sloppy success means so what if the floor wasn’t scrubbed with a toothbrush? As long as it got cleaned. So what that the clothing wasn’t ironed and hung? At least it got put away. So what if the blog wasn’t posted at 8 AM on Monday morning? At least it got posted. See where I am going here?

On the days when everything feels like it is completely falling apart and nothing is going as I thought it should go, that is when I cling to the sloppy success idea the most. Getting something done, no matter how imperfectly, is better than throwing in the towel and not doing it at all.

For me, that sometimes requires a reset. For instance, pouring myself a cup of coffee and hiding in my office to rewrite my blog instead of continuing to stress about how things are not going as I had planned. One of my favorite ways to reset when emotions are really high is to crank up the music and have a dance party that even the neighbors can join in, if they want. 😉

Reset, refocus, and just get it done, no matter how sloppy it is.

“Sloppy success beats perfect failure!” became my mantra for many years and I still use it on days when I am really struggling. I am hopeful that this is helpful for you, too! Maybe next time we will talk about how expectation not meeting reality can throw your whole day off, but that’s a topic for another day. 😊