Stop Sharpening Your Pencil

“More Is Learned Through MOVEMENT Than Meditation.”

When our children were young, they loved using our electric pencil sharpener. Their goal? To make their pencil tip as sharp as possible.

One by one, our three little kiddos would push their pencil into the sharpener for five to 10 seconds. If the tip wasn’t perfectly pointed when they pulled it out, the pencil would be jammed back into the sharpener immediately.

Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz. Bzzz.

When I couldn’t take it anymore, I’d snap. “Stop sharpening your pencils!” I’d laughingly exclaim. Then, I gently reminded them that the pencil tip didn’t need to be perfect to start writing.

Similarly, you and I can sabotage ourselves by thinking everything must be perfect before we start moving. Yet the very act of moving often teaches us more about what needs to be done than getting stuck meditating on how to make things perfect. Yes, there is a time for thinking and planning. But there also comes a time when we need to say, “Good enough is good enough—let’s get moving.”

As the saying goes, “Perfection is the enemy of progress.” To achieve specific outcomes, stop waiting for everything to be perfect and start taking action. As you do, you’ll learn, grow, and develop along the way.

Never forget, more is learned through movement than meditation.