As 2016 comes to a close, we’re on the cusp of the New Year Resolutions bonanza. Each year I share my thoughts on the idea of resolutions, and my goals for the upcoming year, and now as I write this article, I get that same pensive feeling. The year never turns out how I expect, and each December hope blossoms eternal. This has been a year of great change for me with the arrival of Felicity. Reflecting on my challenges and successes this year, and contemplating the adventures that are to come next year, this idea of “perfect is the enemy of good” weighs on my thoughts.

We are integrated people, with many domains in our lives. We have the domains of faith, family, health, finances, and career, among others, that come together to make up who we are as people. These domains are connected in an intricate way so that if one area suffers, many areas suffer. I’ve struggled, in particular, with my time management over the past six months, and I’ve felt how it impacted my entire day. I want to do things well, and I want them to go according to schedule, but that’s just not a realistic expectation.

Perfect is the enemy of good applies to more than just our work or our fitness program. I’m aware of how it applies to my faith life and sin. A routine of prayer is essential in the Christian life for those who truly want to imitate Christ. Just like exercise routines, it’s so easy to set out on a grand adventure of contemplation and sacrifice only to fail before the day has even begun. If we miss that first scheduled prayer time of the day, we agree that it’s best to wait for tomorrow to do it perfectly, and a month later, we still haven’t started. Tomorrow seems to be the perfect day to start anything.

I was once told that it’s never too late to do the right thing. It’s better to do something rather than nothing at all. Tomorrow may seem like the perfect day to start something, but right now actually is the perfect time to start something. What we need is momentum, and as soon as the ball gets rolling, it’s easier for it to keep rolling than to stop. There’s no perfect schedule, perfect ingredient, or magic solution to living the life that you want to live. There is only doing.

I’m working on setting my goals for the upcoming year and gathering the tools that I need in order to be successful. Instead of making resolutions for 2017, I’m going to spend more time doing and less time figuring out the perfect way. Perfection is a lie. True beauty is overcoming all obstacles and continuing to press forward.