Keeping Little Miss Perfect in check
I’m at the airport making my way through security when I realise the departure board doesn’t have my flight on it. I check my phone, feeling uneasy. I’m right to feel uneasy. I’ve booked my flight for the wrong end of the day. I’m lining up for an 8.45am flight, but the flight I’m booked on is departing at 8.45pm. I’m 12 hours early for a flight that is trying to get me to a meeting that starts in a few hours.
A few years ago this would have tipped me over. I’m tired. I spent most of the last few days prepping for the meeting I’m trying to get to. I know the person I’m meeting is a bit nervous about my progress on the project. The person who is coordinating it all is anxious about how it’s going to go. The situation isn’t ideal, but I feel calm. It’s an honest mistake. I make it once every few years and I put it down to the cost of not using a travel agent and booking everything myself.
I head to the airline counter, and they’re great. The fact I’m calm and own my error helps, I think. They book me on the next flight which will get me to the meeting only 15mins late, and don’t charge me a horrendous amount for my error.
Now I’m back waiting for my flight. I’m feeling ok about it all. I think the thing is I tried my best. I can’t do anything more. Yes, in this instance I failed, but no one died. Nothing terrible happened. The situation isn’t ideal, people will not be happy with me, but I’ve fixed it to the best of my ability and I’m only going to be fifteen minutes late.
As mothers and business women we put so much pressure on ourselves to get it right all the time, to be Little Miss Perfect. It feels like if we fail at anything, we are letting down all the other women who are trying to appear as if they have it all under control. When, in reality, we are all balancing everything in a fragile equilibrium.
It’s just not possible to nail it all the time. We are going to stuff it up occasionally. And that’s ok, that’s life. I think we all need to care just a little bit less and focus on all the times we get it right which, if we’re honest, is most of the time. Let’s not waste energy worrying about how we got it wrong, and use that energy putting it right. Plus, now I have time for a coffee and an unexpected pause in my slightly manic day.
Update: They just moved the meeting start time by half an hour so I’m actually on time.