Present Over Perfect

A thoughtful memoir about burnout and learning to slow down, to live fully in our limitations and imperfections. If you have a low tolerance for God talk, it may turn you off, but I found it pretty accessible even as someone who's non-religious.

I knew that I needed to work less. That's absolutely true. That's the first step. But it's trickier than that: the internal voice that tells me to hustle can find a to-do list in my living room as easily as it can in an office. It's not about paid employment. It's about trusting that the hustle will never make you feel the way you want to feel. In that way, it's a drug, and I fall for the initial rush every time: if I push enough, I will feel whole. I will feel proud, I will feel happy. What I feel, though, is exhausted and resentful, but with well-organized closets.

This isn't about working less or more, necessarily. This isn't about homemade or takeout, or full time or part time, or the specific ways we choose to live out our days. It's about rejecting the myth that every day is a new opportunity to prove our worth, and about the truth that our worth is inherent, given by God, not earned by our hustling. It's about learning to show up and let ourselves be seen just as we are, massively imperfect and weak and wild and flawed in a thousand ways, but still worth loving. It's about realizing that what makes our lives meaningful is not what we accomplish, but how deeply and honestly we connect with the people in our lives, how wholly we give ourselves to the making of a better world, through kindness and courage.