It can't be done! and you're right.

I have been thrilled to hear Jon Acuff's book Finish. To sum it up it says no to perfectionism and yes to accomplishment. What I love is that most of the advice I am hearing I have been doing for the last 12 years. Saying no to things, Cutting the goals down, and accepting imperfection, just to name a few.

One of the great reasons people give up as Jon puts it is they think it can't be done. And you know what? He's right.

You can't read the Bible in a year.
You can't journal faithfully every day.
You won't always eat healthily.
You won't be perfect. (By the way, this is why God has grace.)

The problem is we don't give ourselves grace. We think it has to be perfect and we have to do it all right now.

I am right now finishing up on the edits on Bible Reflections. For those not familiar with it, it's my thoughts on every chapter in the Bible. It is nearly a quarter of a million words. It is the culmination of 3 years worth of work. Except it isn't. The work is the result of 12 years worth of writing first in online classrooms and then on a blog. In the first year of the 3 years, I was writing on one chapter for each 5 in the Bible five days a week (2 days built in so I could stay ahead). Guess what that first year, I didn't always succeed.

When I choose to take on the whole Bible I used those posts but saw that doing it 7 days a week wouldn't work so I broke it down to 6 days a week with two-week-long breaks. Then I broke it up into a 4-year project because I knew more than one chapter a day would be impossible. Then I went further and gave those who joined with me, permission to miss a day of journaling or more. I told them if they only did half, that then they would have only journaled half the entire Bible, which was better than most Bible scholars would do in a lifetime.

When I published the first book so the church could start with me, it was full of mistakes. If I waited until everything was perfect we never would have started and the project would never have been completed. Trust me, those that have taken this journey with me this first time aren't going to be talking about those mistakes in grammar when we finish.

I say all of this to point out that if you wait until it's perfect or you're perfect, you won't accomplish much or as much as you could.

I am saying that you should produce junk? NO! There are books I have written which are not published because they need real work (a real editor) to get them ready. When I have the money then they will be completed. However, there are times that it is better to have it, as Jon would put it, "90% and published than 100% and in my head."

Thanks, Jon.