I've never interpreted this as a "curing" catchphrase. It's been really helpful in accepting that it's okay for me to grow at a pace that is right for me instead of one that is convenient for others.
I'm sorry if someone has been poisoning the meaning of it for you. That really fucking sucks.
The image is very misleading, too. The guy there is building a perfect wall. My image shows more what building while being completely broken and disperse would be like.
Forcing yourself to build will likely result in collapse again and again.
I feel like there’s a very large gap between “perfection” and “disastrously bad.” Not sure what world has the average just winging it wall look like an absolute mess. Hell, something like that usually takes a considerable amount more effort than just… building it normally. Both parts of the original post show standard rectangular bricks, so the perfect grid is actually the normal way to make it, not at all like this image.
One of the main things that helped with my inaction on things was “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” I don’t need to do something that’s worthwhile well, I just need to do it
I was thinking the same thing. Been procrastinating school a lot recently because my perfectionism and imposter syndrome won't allow me to do anything less unless it feels worthy of the high GPA I have but don't feel I deserve. This just ends up in a lot of late nights and last-minute cramming.
Sometimes, you just need a lil' cartoon to tell you that the most important thing is trying.
I feel like there's a portion if this sub that just rejects and helpful advice at all. The biggest improvement to my mental and physical health is "some is better than none". So what if I don't brush my teeth at least I used mouth wash. It's objectively better than doing nothing.
You're absolutely right, there are some people here who are just miserable and angry who want something to lash out at.
Which is kind of what this sub is for, but with so much properly awful shit to be mad at I'm not sure why they feel the need to attack everything indiscriminately.
I have noticed this too. I get that it's easy to stay stagnant because it's the devil you know. But unhealed trauma affects every aspect of our life as long as it stays unaddressed.
Demanding quick fixes for a complex issue won't do anything good and expecting for pictures like this to cover all of the nuances of healing feels very unrealistic and nitpicky.
Healing is tough work and it's so worth it.
Paying attention to the small ways I was improving in while giving myself space to rest and work on myself has done so much good for me.
Because telling someone to “continuously improve at mental health” is such a vague and unhelpful suggestion you might as well tell a tree to grow better
It doesn't work if you just say "continuously improve at mental health". But it can work when trying to adopt habits to help with mental health. This mindset has helped me be a lot kinder to myself. I've accomplished a lot by adjusting goals so they're achievable with my executive function issues, instead of beating myself up for failing.
For example: Instead of "clean my whole room today", I can spend 5-10 minutes a day tidying.
That’s solid advice. That’s something practical and applicable.
“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection” is more applicable to the writing process anyways. Making mistakes and fixing them is like 89% of the process of drafting.
But that's not the whole quote, nor the point of it.
"Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection" means it's better to make a bunch of small steps than to plan for some big step all at once some time in the future, because often that big step never comes. That absolutely applies to mental health too.
For example if you struggle to talk to people because it gives you horrible anxiety, you're going to have a lot more success getting yourself to do something small every day that makes you uncomfortable than planning out some perfect, grand event that's going to suddenly solve your anxiety.
it's actually pretty solid mental health advice too. Something I've seen people struggle with when going to therapy is that they expect to be cured in a few sessions and think it's not working because they arnt improving at the "right pace." but the reality is your just slowly laying down bricks one at a time. Tiny improvements to habits. Tiny changes to thought patterns. Sure you might not walk out of session 5 with your bipolar cured, but maybe you'll be 5% of the way to having coping mechanisms that will help even when you inevitably backslide and need help again.
In any area of life, focusing on immediate results will always have you spinning your tires. Creativity is the big obvious one. Like you mentioned, writing, but also what I do in sculpting. You have to suck for awhile at every task but as long as you keep plugging along you will still get further then you would have if you where so focused on results you gave up at the first hurdel.
That's absurd. It's saying that doing nothing because you can't achieve your goals in a single step is self destructive behavior. It's most bland and obviously true statement you will ever see.
Hard agree. A few other posts on this sub basically come down to “You didn’t give the perfect advice, so you’re literally a puppy kicking evil person and I will demonize you to the extremes of abuse and torture in this online echo chamber.”
Yeah, it's easy to forget the amount of kids who use this website, and there are a lot of subs that are self indulgent like this. Went to a sub for ADHD, and it's all "other people don't get us" where I was kinda hoping for useful advice and other people's experiences and techniques. One post was "went through 10 doctors before I found one that would diagnose me" and people were cheering them on lolll
Define "improve". Continuous distraction may feel better while it's happening. But the right trigger will kick you back to zero.
Or, using the image in the post, they built a wall when they needed a pizza oven. Nothing is better and all that effort just created a new problem (a wall that has to be removed before the pizza oven can be started).
Because mental health rarely improves continuously. Sometimes you make progress, sometimes you stagnate, sometimes you backslide what feels like years of work.
I say from extensive experience: if your mental health improved by a bit, it didn't improve; whatever happened that made you think it improved was a situational fluke, so don't get your hopes up or else you might put yourself at risk. The same applies to worsening, so no need to get spooked if something happens one-off randomly.
Mental health is made of consistent things. This is the difference between Depression and the usual human experience of getting under the weather; the difference between living in a bad environment and having anger issues; the difference between ADHD and being in a legit grueling boring condition; and so on.
Therefore, you can't "continued construct" yourself out of a rut, and also you can't be slowly driven to madness. Both happen in "delayed perfection": you take the right antipsychotic med in the right dose and your symptoms poof away in one week tops; you get unarguably victimized by unarguably victimizing circumstances (even if protracted) and you get Trauma. There is no incremental process.
Saying "from experience" in this sub puts you right next to literally everyone else.
My life has absolutely improved by consistent small efforts that eventually add up to be significant. For example, I got to my current 3 times a week gym visits starting with a handful of pushups once a week in my room. Unsurprisingly telling myself to sign up and go to a gym starting from nothing never actually got me anywhere, a bunch of small continuing improvements did.
Bottom one needs to be the top image, perhaps with one or two bricks atop each other to represent growth amongst attempts. The original top image doesn't work as an example for either scenario.
Sorry chief but you're focused on the wrong thing. The quality of the wall itself is irrelevant. Building it is what matters. If you wait for the "Perfect" conditions to build it you will never get anywhere.
The argument could be made that the quality matters, of course, but that is an entirely separate idea and discussion.
I think telling someone that its not important to be perfect, you are getting better and that's enough , you are enough
Is good advice if someone's mental health issues are related to their self esteem or their ability to do something
It reminds me of a football academy i used to go to , they didn't have a "best player" reward , instead they had an improvement reward , players who show significant improvement will eventually be chosen to get it
I'm still unlearning this in regards to my creativity. I'm terribly perfectionistic when making anything with my hands.
But I have gotten much better at noticing the small improvements in other aspects of my life. It has also helped me balance rest and work much better.
I'm not as harsh toward myself when I oversleep/can't sleep bc of insomnia, when I don't have energy for a planned task, when my health gets in the way of doing something, etc.
Ive always seen it as it being in building professional goals. I saw it as "just keep doing it" but I guess it's implementation isn't wrong. It just still feels like it's saying "thats all you need to do"
Actually good advice, I don't really see the issue other than the image doing a bad job conveying it.
Better to do it half assed than procrastinate because it's not perfect yet. As they say, "make it exist first, then make it good." This is not about mental health, it's about creating.
I don't think it's a bad advice. A lot of people (depressed or not) have this mentality of "all or nothing" "if I don't do it completely, do it not perfectly the first time, why bother" " i didnt accomplish all of my list of small things today, i'm shit"
And you end up doing nothing and frustrated and with low self esteem.
Sometimes doing a "good enough" or even a "meh" job is better than nothing.
No but this is literally true for developing any skill tho? Like so often people never try to learn to draw or write or whatever because they immediately want to do it perfectly, but you gotta actually do it poorly to start doing it well. You gotta give yourself the room to make mistakes so you can learn.
This is good advice? Perfectionism stops alot of people from doing alot of things. Especially creative things. People get so hung up on making something good, they are scared of ever making anything bad and it stops them from ever making anything at all!
Like drawing. Almost everyone I know who says they don't draw because they suck at drawing can draw as well as any other person who's had there same level of experiance. They miss the part where everyone sucks at some point and get hung up and then quit something they might love down the line because rather then focusing on the act creation, they are focusing on the results they demand of themselves.
What. It's true. The point is to not beat yourself up because you didn't get it all done. Sometimes the only accomplishment for the day is brushing your teeth or showering. And well fucking done, because it was a hard day and you still did something.
While working out with videos I've been told "if you need to you can modify and do this instead or whatever else feels good for you today, but i want you to continue. Modifying to make things easier is okay, stopping is not."
Which has helped me with regular mental health things as well. Doing anything with low intensity is better than not doing it at all because you want it to be done even better. For example wiping down one surface instead of the choices only being all surfaces in the room or none of them
It reminds me of the post where someone's therapist said that it's ok to just eat the components of a sandwich instead of making a sandwich first to eat. Nothing is stopping you from grabbing some cheese and ham, and whatever else you like and eating it just like that.
The brick laying is a methaphor for self-improvement through small steps. Which can 100% apply to mental health.
I think sometimes people get in their own way by wanting their improvement to be perfect and monumental, so they won't even start. Or they'll stop when method nr 1 or 2 didn't work, assuming that the other methods won't work either.
But that's not how it works. It requires small, consistent steps while still making sure that you give yourself rest. It requires trial and error. It requires building a better relationship with yourself and being ok with making mistakes.
Well yeah it doesn’t always apply to a mental condition that doesn’t leave, like you can improve yourself and help yourself but you still have the condition which I feel like the idea of “perfection” leaves out, but maybe im just being nitpicky idk
I don't know who here needs to hear this, but, Remember: Half ass is better than no ass. Gotta clean the bathroom? It's better to do it a little bit at a time, even if it takes you a week or more, then to just let it sit uncleaned altogether. Dishes? It's better to get one or two done at a time then it is for them to just pile up.
I'm pretty sure at least 50% of my depression comes from realizing I can't do "continuous improvement"
My skills, knowledge and practice evaporates after a time. (3-6 months) Keeping practice only helps somewhat.
I occasionally recall stuff (I still remember it, recalling it at will is the problem) but I can't do it reliably.
So I see myself put in the time and effort time and time again and see others grow and achieve things while I'm just standing there, drained of energy and gained very little.
Horrible feeling in university when you sit in a class that isn't new, you remember learning it, but you can't recall anything up to standard, just to the level of trivia knowledge, not academic detail. So I don't even get that first time rush of new information, just soul crushing grind against the same material, only to feel it physically slip from my mind into the chaotic mess of my "long term memory"
I randomly came across a quote that said something along the lines of 'anything worth doing is worth doing poorly' and it helped me more times than I can count.
Remember quite a few moments where I would convince myself to wash my teeth half-assedly for like 5 seconds then end up doing it fully without issues. I would start off with just 3 push-ups, only to finish a whole workout session, and so much more.
It's a bit different in terms of subtext when it comes to this picture but I think it's not that bad as you think op.
I'll take a twist on this. How about let's accept that sometimes we take steps backwards and then we try to take steps forward. And maybe let's acknowledge that perfection is not possible. I think the best version of this advice that actually did help me is that nothing is permanent neither success nor failure
If your task relies on meeting a set deadline, that’s understandable. Chasing perfection at the expense of missing that deadline makes the effort pointless.
However, if perfection is crucial for security, integrity, or structure, it’s important to let management know it can’t be released imperfect or iterated without posing significant risks.
No, improving continuosly means getting startet and accepting to make mistakes and getting better on the way.
Delayed perfection means not to begin because you dont want to do anything wrong and getting perfekt from the start. But effectively getting nothing done because you only ponder how to do everything right instead to simply act.
Wait… I think I’ve figured this one out! Since perfection doesn’t exist, the pursuit of it always ends in… failure? Ok. 👍🏻
But seriously, I wasn’t even aiming for perfection. I’m just trying to stack some stupid bricks. It’s not my fault they keep getting knocked over. You guys didn’t even give me any cement!
No this metaphor does work for mental health......idk why everyone is so focused on the images and taking a picture metaphor litterally. It's objectively better to just Start and be ok w not being perfect and continuing on than to start/continuing only when u hit perfection.
It works only in very specific contexts. More often than not, this mindset can result in even worse forms of the kind of problem it aims to prevent.
Not everything can be done as a protracted process. When significant results take too long to manifest, motivation flies out of the window, the idea gets reconsidered and revisions reset the backlog all the way to square one. When things get to this point, it's indeed better to just "delay perfection" or not even bother.
This one actually works for me. Starting to notice and appreciate the small ways I was improving in and giving myself space to heal has done so much for me.
Before that I would only pay attention to the big goal, punished myself for any setbacks, felt inadequate and thought I was getting nowhere.
I'm much kinder for myself now and much better at balancing rest and working on my healing.
Its true in many aspects of life but isn't a brick wall one of those things you in fact have to get right from the start or you'll screw the entire wall up
IDK, it gets harped on a lot but I see this one less as a cure than as a coping mechanism. My apartment is a LOT more livable now that I consider it OK to wash two dishes rather than having to do the entire sink if I start, etc.
This one has a point but the photo example isn’t the best… on the first ‘imperfect’ pic the wall is actually perfect. If it has poor foundation though, it might crush you lol
I've never interpreted this as a "curing" catchphrase. It's been really helpful in accepting that it's okay for me to grow at a pace that is right for me instead of one that is convenient for others.
I'm sorry if someone has been poisoning the meaning of it for you. That really fucking sucks.
Learning that it's better to do something imperfectly than not at all was a major factor in my overall improvement
Its sometimes true, but in the case of brick and mortar walls starting correctly is kind of a big deal.
Knowing that doesn't help me do it.
You got it! This photo is great advice when you apply it that way
The image is very misleading, too. The guy there is building a perfect wall. My image shows more what building while being completely broken and disperse would be like.
Forcing yourself to build will likely result in collapse again and again.
https://preview.redd.it/wr6alumwjh4g1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8429d54e6285c6e15fd1ec023b3b2037a3218e90
I feel like there’s a very large gap between “perfection” and “disastrously bad.” Not sure what world has the average just winging it wall look like an absolute mess. Hell, something like that usually takes a considerable amount more effort than just… building it normally. Both parts of the original post show standard rectangular bricks, so the perfect grid is actually the normal way to make it, not at all like this image.
Yeah masonry is one of those things where fixing it in post is usually not great.
was going to say the same, but this made me realize the imperfection can become style
It’s a good way try and get past ‘analysis paralysis’
What if I can't grow at all?
Have you considered going to the gym? /j
One of the main things that helped with my inaction on things was “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” I don’t need to do something that’s worthwhile well, I just need to do it
I actually liked this one
I was thinking the same thing. Been procrastinating school a lot recently because my perfectionism and imposter syndrome won't allow me to do anything less unless it feels worthy of the high GPA I have but don't feel I deserve. This just ends up in a lot of late nights and last-minute cramming.
Sometimes, you just need a lil' cartoon to tell you that the most important thing is trying.
The fuck could possibly be wrong with this? Is literally just saying action is better than no action. It's the most bland and obvious statement ever.
What happened to this sub?
I feel like there's a portion if this sub that just rejects and helpful advice at all. The biggest improvement to my mental and physical health is "some is better than none". So what if I don't brush my teeth at least I used mouth wash. It's objectively better than doing nothing.
You're absolutely right, there are some people here who are just miserable and angry who want something to lash out at.
Which is kind of what this sub is for, but with so much properly awful shit to be mad at I'm not sure why they feel the need to attack everything indiscriminately.
I have noticed this too. I get that it's easy to stay stagnant because it's the devil you know. But unhealed trauma affects every aspect of our life as long as it stays unaddressed.
Demanding quick fixes for a complex issue won't do anything good and expecting for pictures like this to cover all of the nuances of healing feels very unrealistic and nitpicky.
Healing is tough work and it's so worth it.
Paying attention to the small ways I was improving in while giving myself space to rest and work on myself has done so much good for me.
Unsurprisingly, the target audience for this sub does not want any advice or motivation. They'll just rot away slowly.
The images don't make sense
[deleted]
Just like you?
Solid writing advice. Terrible mental health advice.
How is this bad mental health advice?
Because telling someone to “continuously improve at mental health” is such a vague and unhelpful suggestion you might as well tell a tree to grow better
It doesn't work if you just say "continuously improve at mental health". But it can work when trying to adopt habits to help with mental health. This mindset has helped me be a lot kinder to myself. I've accomplished a lot by adjusting goals so they're achievable with my executive function issues, instead of beating myself up for failing.
For example: Instead of "clean my whole room today", I can spend 5-10 minutes a day tidying.
That’s solid advice. That’s something practical and applicable.
“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection” is more applicable to the writing process anyways. Making mistakes and fixing them is like 89% of the process of drafting.
But that's not the whole quote, nor the point of it.
"Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection" means it's better to make a bunch of small steps than to plan for some big step all at once some time in the future, because often that big step never comes. That absolutely applies to mental health too.
For example if you struggle to talk to people because it gives you horrible anxiety, you're going to have a lot more success getting yourself to do something small every day that makes you uncomfortable than planning out some perfect, grand event that's going to suddenly solve your anxiety.
It might mean, make things just a little bit better, we all know how we could do that
it's actually pretty solid mental health advice too. Something I've seen people struggle with when going to therapy is that they expect to be cured in a few sessions and think it's not working because they arnt improving at the "right pace." but the reality is your just slowly laying down bricks one at a time. Tiny improvements to habits. Tiny changes to thought patterns. Sure you might not walk out of session 5 with your bipolar cured, but maybe you'll be 5% of the way to having coping mechanisms that will help even when you inevitably backslide and need help again.
In any area of life, focusing on immediate results will always have you spinning your tires. Creativity is the big obvious one. Like you mentioned, writing, but also what I do in sculpting. You have to suck for awhile at every task but as long as you keep plugging along you will still get further then you would have if you where so focused on results you gave up at the first hurdel.
That's absurd. It's saying that doing nothing because you can't achieve your goals in a single step is self destructive behavior. It's most bland and obviously true statement you will ever see.
See the other comment chain. Giving actual advice is so much better than “get better at it”
According to this sub all advice is bad advice lol maybe the whiniest, self-indulgent sub on reddit?
If anyone is trying to improve themselves and give up that victim mentality, stop coming here
Hard agree. A few other posts on this sub basically come down to “You didn’t give the perfect advice, so you’re literally a puppy kicking evil person and I will demonize you to the extremes of abuse and torture in this online echo chamber.”
Yeah, it's easy to forget the amount of kids who use this website, and there are a lot of subs that are self indulgent like this. Went to a sub for ADHD, and it's all "other people don't get us" where I was kinda hoping for useful advice and other people's experiences and techniques. One post was "went through 10 doctors before I found one that would diagnose me" and people were cheering them on lolll
Define "improve". Continuous distraction may feel better while it's happening. But the right trigger will kick you back to zero.
Or, using the image in the post, they built a wall when they needed a pizza oven. Nothing is better and all that effort just created a new problem (a wall that has to be removed before the pizza oven can be started).
Because mental health rarely improves continuously. Sometimes you make progress, sometimes you stagnate, sometimes you backslide what feels like years of work.
I say from extensive experience: if your mental health improved by a bit, it didn't improve; whatever happened that made you think it improved was a situational fluke, so don't get your hopes up or else you might put yourself at risk. The same applies to worsening, so no need to get spooked if something happens one-off randomly.
Mental health is made of consistent things. This is the difference between Depression and the usual human experience of getting under the weather; the difference between living in a bad environment and having anger issues; the difference between ADHD and being in a legit grueling boring condition; and so on.
Therefore, you can't "continued construct" yourself out of a rut, and also you can't be slowly driven to madness. Both happen in "delayed perfection": you take the right antipsychotic med in the right dose and your symptoms poof away in one week tops; you get unarguably victimized by unarguably victimizing circumstances (even if protracted) and you get Trauma. There is no incremental process.
Saying "from experience" in this sub puts you right next to literally everyone else.
My life has absolutely improved by consistent small efforts that eventually add up to be significant. For example, I got to my current 3 times a week gym visits starting with a handful of pushups once a week in my room. Unsurprisingly telling myself to sign up and go to a gym starting from nothing never actually got me anywhere, a bunch of small continuing improvements did.
Saying "good for you" puts me where in relation to others, then?
This is great advice for mental health. Take action now rather than waiting for something perfect to come.
This pic is literally what my therapist is telling me though 🤔
Listen to your therapist. I’m just a person on the internet. Are you going to trust my opinion or a certified trained mental health professional?
Fair point. Just curious about different points of view and sharing my lived experience.
I’ll reiterate that I think the advice on the pic is logical, if a little vague. But you may have valid reasons to disagree.
How is the top an image of continuous improvement?
I don't see any mis-shapen lower or middle rows that still need to be improved, for example.
Exactly. First one is "perfect" from the start. Second one has tried and tried and tried, and this is their nth start-over and they are discouraged.
I am projecting so hard.
Bottom one needs to be the top image, perhaps with one or two bricks atop each other to represent growth amongst attempts. The original top image doesn't work as an example for either scenario.
Yes you are, but I can relate.
Sorry chief but you're focused on the wrong thing. The quality of the wall itself is irrelevant. Building it is what matters. If you wait for the "Perfect" conditions to build it you will never get anywhere.
The argument could be made that the quality matters, of course, but that is an entirely separate idea and discussion.
I think telling someone that its not important to be perfect, you are getting better and that's enough , you are enough
Is good advice if someone's mental health issues are related to their self esteem or their ability to do something
It reminds me of a football academy i used to go to , they didn't have a "best player" reward , instead they had an improvement reward , players who show significant improvement will eventually be chosen to get it
this is actually something i probably need to learn, i give up on things immediately because i hate the fact that i suck at it
I'm still unlearning this in regards to my creativity. I'm terribly perfectionistic when making anything with my hands.
But I have gotten much better at noticing the small improvements in other aspects of my life. It has also helped me balance rest and work much better.
I'm not as harsh toward myself when I oversleep/can't sleep bc of insomnia, when I don't have energy for a planned task, when my health gets in the way of doing something, etc.
It is so freeing to be actually kind to yourself.
The picture is off, but the message is right.
Is this supposed to be for mental health? It looks like just advice for professions or something
Were you taught about methaphors and subtext in school? Or media literacy?
The meaning of this picture is quite clear, the brick laying is simply a methaphor for self-improvement through small steps.
Ive always seen it as it being in building professional goals. I saw it as "just keep doing it" but I guess it's implementation isn't wrong. It just still feels like it's saying "thats all you need to do"
Actually good advice, I don't really see the issue other than the image doing a bad job conveying it.
Better to do it half assed than procrastinate because it's not perfect yet. As they say, "make it exist first, then make it good." This is not about mental health, it's about creating.
I think most people would agree with this statement.
I don't think it's a bad advice. A lot of people (depressed or not) have this mentality of "all or nothing" "if I don't do it completely, do it not perfectly the first time, why bother" " i didnt accomplish all of my list of small things today, i'm shit" And you end up doing nothing and frustrated and with low self esteem.
Sometimes doing a "good enough" or even a "meh" job is better than nothing.
It's just good advice? Not even mental health related. Maybe a bit vague but that's kinda the point.
No but this is literally true for developing any skill tho? Like so often people never try to learn to draw or write or whatever because they immediately want to do it perfectly, but you gotta actually do it poorly to start doing it well. You gotta give yourself the room to make mistakes so you can learn.
This is good advice? Perfectionism stops alot of people from doing alot of things. Especially creative things. People get so hung up on making something good, they are scared of ever making anything bad and it stops them from ever making anything at all!
Like drawing. Almost everyone I know who says they don't draw because they suck at drawing can draw as well as any other person who's had there same level of experiance. They miss the part where everyone sucks at some point and get hung up and then quit something they might love down the line because rather then focusing on the act creation, they are focusing on the results they demand of themselves.
I actually needed to hear this today.
What. It's true. The point is to not beat yourself up because you didn't get it all done. Sometimes the only accomplishment for the day is brushing your teeth or showering. And well fucking done, because it was a hard day and you still did something.
Sorry to say but... yeah. It works. Maybe a better way to put it is that doing a shit job beats doing nothing
While working out with videos I've been told "if you need to you can modify and do this instead or whatever else feels good for you today, but i want you to continue. Modifying to make things easier is okay, stopping is not."
Which has helped me with regular mental health things as well. Doing anything with low intensity is better than not doing it at all because you want it to be done even better. For example wiping down one surface instead of the choices only being all surfaces in the room or none of them
That is a really good tip.
It reminds me of the post where someone's therapist said that it's ok to just eat the components of a sandwich instead of making a sandwich first to eat. Nothing is stopping you from grabbing some cheese and ham, and whatever else you like and eating it just like that.
Actually that one does make a bit of sense, it’s just not a one size fits all
I don’t think this one’s about mental health
The brick laying is a methaphor for self-improvement through small steps. Which can 100% apply to mental health.
I think sometimes people get in their own way by wanting their improvement to be perfect and monumental, so they won't even start. Or they'll stop when method nr 1 or 2 didn't work, assuming that the other methods won't work either.
But that's not how it works. It requires small, consistent steps while still making sure that you give yourself rest. It requires trial and error. It requires building a better relationship with yourself and being ok with making mistakes.
Well yeah it doesn’t always apply to a mental condition that doesn’t leave, like you can improve yourself and help yourself but you still have the condition which I feel like the idea of “perfection” leaves out, but maybe im just being nitpicky idk
Me and my Factorio base:
I legit need to have this on replay in my head.
I don't know who here needs to hear this, but, Remember: Half ass is better than no ass. Gotta clean the bathroom? It's better to do it a little bit at a time, even if it takes you a week or more, then to just let it sit uncleaned altogether. Dishes? It's better to get one or two done at a time then it is for them to just pile up.
I'm pretty sure at least 50% of my depression comes from realizing I can't do "continuous improvement"
My skills, knowledge and practice evaporates after a time. (3-6 months) Keeping practice only helps somewhat.
I occasionally recall stuff (I still remember it, recalling it at will is the problem) but I can't do it reliably.
So I see myself put in the time and effort time and time again and see others grow and achieve things while I'm just standing there, drained of energy and gained very little.
Horrible feeling in university when you sit in a class that isn't new, you remember learning it, but you can't recall anything up to standard, just to the level of trivia knowledge, not academic detail. So I don't even get that first time rush of new information, just soul crushing grind against the same material, only to feel it physically slip from my mind into the chaotic mess of my "long term memory"
It's good for the long run. It won't instantly cure you if you used your brain and thought about it?
That wall is way too neat to relay that message.
Now y'all are just being negative on purpose
I randomly came across a quote that said something along the lines of 'anything worth doing is worth doing poorly' and it helped me more times than I can count.
Remember quite a few moments where I would convince myself to wash my teeth half-assedly for like 5 seconds then end up doing it fully without issues. I would start off with just 3 push-ups, only to finish a whole workout session, and so much more.
It's a bit different in terms of subtext when it comes to this picture but I think it's not that bad as you think op.
I'll take a twist on this. How about let's accept that sometimes we take steps backwards and then we try to take steps forward. And maybe let's acknowledge that perfection is not possible. I think the best version of this advice that actually did help me is that nothing is permanent neither success nor failure
If your task relies on meeting a set deadline, that’s understandable. Chasing perfection at the expense of missing that deadline makes the effort pointless.
However, if perfection is crucial for security, integrity, or structure, it’s important to let management know it can’t be released imperfect or iterated without posing significant risks.
What does this even mean, delayed perfection is the same damn thing as improving continuously towards perfection is it not?
No, improving continuosly means getting startet and accepting to make mistakes and getting better on the way. Delayed perfection means not to begin because you dont want to do anything wrong and getting perfekt from the start. But effectively getting nothing done because you only ponder how to do everything right instead to simply act.
'frozen perfection' would describe that. Delayed perfection is the same as improving continously.
Wait… I think I’ve figured this one out! Since perfection doesn’t exist, the pursuit of it always ends in… failure? Ok. 👍🏻
But seriously, I wasn’t even aiming for perfection. I’m just trying to stack some stupid bricks. It’s not my fault they keep getting knocked over. You guys didn’t even give me any cement!
Not having adhd is better than having adhd.
Cool. Good tip.
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No this metaphor does work for mental health......idk why everyone is so focused on the images and taking a picture metaphor litterally. It's objectively better to just Start and be ok w not being perfect and continuing on than to start/continuing only when u hit perfection.
I would argue that the sentence works fine for mental health, but building a brick wall is not a good way to show it.
Arguably the top image had to reset the bottom row of bricks 100 times before moving to the 2nd row. But theres no way of knowing that in this image.
Only thing that comes to my mind is: "Now try without bricks :)"
It works only in very specific contexts. More often than not, this mindset can result in even worse forms of the kind of problem it aims to prevent.
Not everything can be done as a protracted process. When significant results take too long to manifest, motivation flies out of the window, the idea gets reconsidered and revisions reset the backlog all the way to square one. When things get to this point, it's indeed better to just "delay perfection" or not even bother.
They're the same picture.
What if the thing you need to do, needs to be perfect?
This one actually works for me. Starting to notice and appreciate the small ways I was improving in and giving myself space to heal has done so much for me.
Before that I would only pay attention to the big goal, punished myself for any setbacks, felt inadequate and thought I was getting nowhere.
I'm much kinder for myself now and much better at balancing rest and working on my healing.
Its true in many aspects of life but isn't a brick wall one of those things you in fact have to get right from the start or you'll screw the entire wall up
This is so good actually
while I get the quote, where's the perfection in the second part?
Idk I’d rather not have to build up in the first place.
...this is good advice though
IDK, it gets harped on a lot but I see this one less as a cure than as a coping mechanism. My apartment is a LOT more livable now that I consider it OK to wash two dishes rather than having to do the entire sink if I start, etc.
This one has a point but the photo example isn’t the best… on the first ‘imperfect’ pic the wall is actually perfect. If it has poor foundation though, it might crush you lol
I have neither so...
Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly
Might've been better if the top picture looked less "perfectly" aligned. It's asking for continuous AND perfection.
This is literally true though. This message may be too vague to be applicable, but at its core it’s sound advice.
https://preview.redd.it/1fvjl1hevx5g1.jpeg?width=607&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f5a8376c11e6971fffd8e9f222fd5a77fe4659de
Fixed it
What if you built the house in the wrong place and now have to do it all over again
You were able to build a house