I have been struggling for the past few days – and more accurately, the past few hours – to write a new post. The problem isn’t with ideas – those are flowing freely. I’ve got ideas for posts about everything from identity and connection to fear and loneliness percolating in my head.

No, the trouble isn’t coming up with something to write about. The trouble, it seems, is in the starting. I just can’t seem to get the ideas to move from my mind onto the page. I can’t seem to get my heart to move through my fingertips.

I’m stuck. And not quite sure how to get unstuck.

Truthfully, I’m feeling stuck in a number of ways. Stuck as a try to balance professional goals with wanting to spend time doing fun summer activities with my kids. Stuck as a wait to hear back from the select group of agents I have queried for my new book. Stuck as I wait for my husband’s intense work schedule to ease up a bit. Stuck as I try to hone my writing skills and find my “voice.” Stuck and unsure of where and how to begin getting unstuck.

But then, suddenly, I realize that the only reason I am stuck is because I am waiting for something perfect – for the perfect blog post, for the perfect work-life-family balance, for the perfect time to write, for the perfect way for things to unfold and fall into place – and, as I wrote in my very first blog post, the perfect is always the enemy.

A quest for the perfect keeps us stuck. It keeps us from doing something, anything. The perfect keeps us from being real and true and honest with ourselves and others. The perfect keeps us from trying, from experimenting, from adventuring. The perfect keeps us closed off and indignant and defensive. The perfect separates us from accepting our God-given talents and gifts, and it keeps us from fulfilling our call to be who we are right here in this moment. The perfect keeps us stuck and lost and immobile.

In short, the perfect sucks.

The key, I think, to getting unstuck is just to start – somewhere, anywhere. To put one foot in front of the other. To try, to fail, and to try again. The key, I think, is to give up on the quest for the perfect and to just embrace the divinely imperfect.

So here is my very imperfect attempt at getting unstuck. And, really, given that I had been stuck and now I am unstuck, I think that it’s just about perfect.

Do you struggle with a quest for the perfect? How do you get unstuck?

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This post is also part of the weekly Photo Inspiration Challenge.  Special thanks to Angie McMonigal Photography for her fabulous photos.  Make sure to visit her website or facebook page. Her work is both stunning and, well, inspirational.