When every day becomes about getting things done, joy is often the first thing we leave behind.
Volume 2, Edition 6
I don’t think most of us wake up one morning and decide to stop enjoying life, but it happens a little at a time.
We convince ourselves we’ll slow down after this busy week. We’ll celebrate after the next milestone. We’ll rest once everything is finally caught up. Before long, we’re living from one checklist to the next, wondering why we feel so tired despite accomplishing everything we set out to do.
Life has been especially full these past few months. Between leading a busy healthcare practice, graduate school, writing, and trying to be present for the people I love, it’s easy to slip into a mindset where productivity becomes the goal instead of simply living. That realization made me stop and ask myself a simple question: When was the last time I intentionally made space for joy?
As a nurse, healthcare leader, graduate student, writer, wife, and someone who genuinely wants to do good work, I know what it feels like to carry a never-ending mental checklist. There is always one more email. One more assignment. One more person who needs something. One more project that could be just a little bit better.
Perfection has a sneaky way of disguising itself as responsibility.
Sometimes it looks like procrastination because you’re afraid it won’t be good enough. Sometimes it looks like saying yes to everything because you don’t want to disappoint anyone. Sometimes it looks like lying awake at night replaying conversations that everyone else has already forgotten.
The hardest part is that perfectionism rarely feels like perfectionism. It feels like being a responsible adult.
Stress only fuels it.
When life becomes uncertain, we naturally look for something we can control. We organize. We plan. We overthink. We convince ourselves that if we can just anticipate every outcome, nothing bad will happen.
Life has a way of reminding us that control is often an illusion.
That realization can be frustrating, yet strangely freeing.
Lately, I’ve been asking myself a different question. Instead of asking, “How do I get everything done?” I’ve started asking, “What would make today feel meaningful?”
The answers are surprisingly ordinary.
Taking a walk before opening my laptop.
Calling someone I love instead of sending another text.
Reading a few pages of a book simply because I enjoy it.
Watching my cat Zeus stretch out in a sunny window and realizing he has mastered something I still struggle to learn: resting without guilt.
Joy usually doesn’t arrive in dramatic moments. It quietly slips into the spaces we intentionally leave open for it.
Planning for the future is important. Working toward goals matters. Dreams deserve our effort.
None of those things require us to squeeze every ounce of life out of today.
Sometimes the healthiest thing we can do is loosen our grip on exactly how everything is supposed to unfold. We still show up. We still work hard. We simply stop measuring our worth by flawless outcomes.
If you’ve been feeling exhausted lately, perhaps the answer isn’t to become more productive. Perhaps it’s to become a little more present.
Notice where perfection is quietly asking too much of you.
Choose one small thing this week that brings you joy with no expectation of productivity attached to it.
Sit on the porch with your morning coffee.
Take the scenic route home.
Laugh with someone who makes you forget the time.
Read for pleasure.
Watch the sunset.
Life isn’t asking us to be perfect.
It is asking us to be here.
Until next time, may you leave a little room in your schedule, your mind, and your heart for the kind of joy that doesn’t need to be earned.
© 2026 Kimberly Weisner, All Rights Reserved
Leave a comment