Imperfect Progress is Still Progress | Here's Why That Matters | Episode 438

Imperfect Progress is Still Progress | Here's Why That Matters | Episode 438

What if “enough” isn’t a finish line, but a rhythm you learn to keep? We dig into the messy middle of mental health—where apologies meet action, therapy meets real life, and progress shows up as small, stackable steps rather than dramatic overnight change. No preaching, no performative perfection, just a clear-eyed look at how hard it is to grow while owning the harm you may have caused and asking for grace without demanding it.

Across this conversation, we unpack the weight of daily mental health work and why some priorities must take a back seat while others move forward. We talk about what a real apology sounds like—naming the impact, not rushing the timeline, and letting consistency be the evidence. We explore therapy as structure: frequent sessions, honest homework, and the patience to treat setbacks as signals, not verdicts. And we name the big trap: believing change should feel like a switch you flip. It’s not. It’s closer to a practice you return to, especially on the days you’d rather not.

We also open up about ego, authenticity, and the courage to keep it real in front of a global community. That means inviting disagreement, honoring free speech, and still choosing care. Listeners will hear why we trust incremental gains over grand gestures, how we balance heavy topics with light moments, and what it means to measure “enough” by the next right step you can sustain. If you’ve ever wondered whether your trying counts, this is the checkpoint you needed.

If this resonates, share it with someone who could use a little grace today. Subscribe for more honest mental health conversations, leave a review if our work helps you, and consider supporting the mission at lovevoices.org so we can keep showing up together.

Chapter Markers

0:02 Welcome & Community Gratitude

1:02 Nonprofit Mission & Donations

2:00 Defining Enough In Mental Health

3:58 The Weight Of Daily Struggle

6:22 Priorities, Tradeoffs, And Back Burners

7:36 Apology, Accountability, And Growth

9:10 Therapy, Mistakes, And Realistic Change

11:39 Authenticity Over Preaching

13:45 Grace, Perspective, And Free Speech

16:00 Work In Progress Mindset

18:16 Keeping It Real And Global Community

25:30 Closing Thanks & Donation Reminder

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Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome & Community Gratitude
• 1:02 Nonprofit Mission & Donations
• 2:00 Defining Enough In Mental Health
• 3:58 The Weight Of Daily Struggle
• 6:22 Priorities, Tradeoffs, And Back Burners
• 7:36 Apology, Accountability, And Growth
• 9:10 Therapy, Mistakes, And Realistic Change
• 11:39 Authenticity Over Preaching
• 13:45 Grace, Perspective, And Free Speech
• 16:00 Work In Progress Mindset
• 18:16 Keeping It Real And Global Community
• 25:30 Closing Thanks & Donation Reminder

Transcript

Speaker: 0:02

Hi everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you so much for joining us today on this episode. Well over 435 episodes in our portfolio, our catalog of shows. Uh, we invite you to watch view uh previous shows. Uh we can just about guarantee at least 30 to 40 shows. Uh if not more, uh will resonate with you. And we also ask if you are able to share this uh podcast with your friends, family, colleagues, send a group chat group text to uh you know 25, 50, 100 individuals in your uh friend group, let them know about voices for voices. We are a 501c3 nonprofit charity, which means we do accept donations, and those donations uh can be made at lovevoices.org, lovevoices.org, and once again, lovevoices.org, and I'll just spell it out just to make it crystal clear. L-O-V-E V-O-I-C-E-S.org. That will get you to the right spot. No donation is too small, no donation is too big, and we thank you. You're the reason why we have a show. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have a reason to uh come to you through uh the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. So we're gonna talk a little bit uh obviously we're gonna talk about mental health, and so within the realm of mental health, uh there is uh part that relates to the word enough. And what does enough mean? I'm not gonna go again and uh read a definition. I'm gonna go off of what what we feel enough means. Uh I'm not talking about the enough we've had it uh aspect. So uh don't think that that's where the angle we're coming at. Because we're not we're coming at the angle uh how much is enough? How much do we need to do for it to be enough? I get it, we're always growing, we're always growing. There's always things we can do to get better, to show how how better we're we're getting, how we're taking an initiative. Um and so when we think of enough in that that respect, how much is enough? How many boxes do there need to be? Number one, and how many boxes need to be checked? Um it's a tough perspective more to how about mental health because working with mental health, mental challenges is a heavy, a heavy load, a heavy weight that's on our shoulders day in, day out, morning in, morning out, night in, night out. You know, working working through that is is very, very hard. And this isn't this has nothing to do with excuses, nothing at all. But we're just talking about what is enough for one person to do for it to be recognized that oh, okay, they're on the right track. Especially when you have quite a few, quite a few areas to to work on. And I apologize if there's any there's any sound. They're doing some digging all all around uh us, and uh they're they're picking their hours that they are uh digging something about internet or uh some something like that. But it's getting back to our our topic of enough, we know we're not gonna stop, we're gonna keep doing as much as we can, we're gonna keep trying to do more, keep trying to help as much as we can. And and to be quite frank, uh sometimes that means some areas get less attention, some areas take, you know, what we would call like, I don't know, like a back seat, make it put on the back burner. Still moving forward. But looking at things holistically saying, Oh, I I really need to I need to do better. Uh I need to do better. And so I you know, just like I said, anybody watching, listening, near and far. Uh I'm sorry that what I've done or what I haven't done is or isn't enough. I am I am working on myself on a daily basis, trying to do as much as I can. Some of the topics we do talk about are pretty heavy, and that goes without saying, I we talk about very heavy topics, talk about events, experiences in the past, in the current state. And so for anybody out there again that that's watching, listening, listening, who feels that I haven't done enough, uh I'm sorry. I I don't know what else I can say. There's a lot of lot of things that uh say took for granted other other terms that can be used and I'm doing my best to get better mentally the therapy the more frequent therapy in addition to what I already had set up and have had for guess years. And so that's really all a person can do. If you're feeling that way, it's totally normal to feel that way to feel like you know, what what else can I do? I'm gonna continue to make mistakes because I'm not perfect. Nobody is perfect. Can only can only do so much at a time when it comes to changing. This isn't a a switch that gets just flipped flipped on or flipped off or a dimmable light. It doesn't go that way. So this is like raw mental health right here. We're we're talking about right now. Uh again, we talk about lighthearted, easy topics, and then we talk about topics like this, where changing behavior being okay to change behavior. You know, I don't I don't sit here or stand here at at some pulpit and preach what I think you need to do or what I need to do. What I do is share my opinions, my experiences, as well as when we have guests on, they share theirs. And so we're trying to help people because we think that there's probably probably others that are watching and listening that this might make a difference. Okay, he's going through this. We don't we don't like having to go through hard times, hardships, you name it, whatever the the word uh or words you want to want to use. And it doesn't mean that we're gonna stop doing, that we're gonna stop trying, that we're gonna stop with, okay, well, here, helping to do this or that just means hey, we're trying. Uh you know, as an as an individual. And as I mentioned, uh I don't have shame, I don't have uh used to have this crazy ego where that's what everything would be about. Is me and my ego now it's it's it's not that at least I don't think it is. Maybe maybe some view it in a different sense. But all I can say, and I've said this before, maybe not to this extent publicly that I'm sorry for whatever it is that I'm either doing, I'm not doing, not doing enough, doing something wrong. The only thing I know how to be is to be me. I don't know how to be another person. Uh earlier in my life, I was probably a different person than I am now. For the reasons I've detailed over and over again and in previous shows, but I'm not too full of myself to recognize that I I've made wrongs, I've done things that may have affected others. See, I don't I don't have I don't I don't I don't have a problem with that and it feels good to just share this and and to apologize and to just be human just be a regular human going through regular human things some I don't want to have to go through go going through but I'd also ask any anyone for grace to take a step back maybe and and look at where things are at holistically now versus where they were six months ago a year ago, five years, ten years. Again, we've all made mistakes. I I've made mistakes. So I'm not gonna sit here, like I said, I'm not gonna sit here and preach, and and our shows aren't meant to be like that, our shows are meant to be just real situations, real life that's gone on. And I'm sorry if topics, things come up and it bothers people. I just don't know how to be anybody else but myself. And I would think the same for you. That you don't you don't want to be anybody else but yourself either. And that and that that's okay, that's just life. Some decisions we make are real fast, real in the moment. Some we have the ability to take a step back, some we have the ability to take a step back, and we maybe maybe we don't, or maybe something gets overlooked, but I can probably assure you that after four hundred and thirty-five encounting episodes, that there's probably been topics that have rubbed people the wrong way. But with this being America, First Amendment, freedom of speech, and with my willingness to apologize anybody that I've hurt, anybody you know spiritually, mentally I haven't done things fast enough. All I can say is I'm sorry, I'm trying. Some parts it may be enough, other parts it maybe it's not. But that just means it's I'm a work in progress, and that's what I think every human being is, is a work in progress. Each day we we have some things that are very similar that we do, consistency, and then there's others where something comes out of the blue, and we have to work through a situation that we might not have been planning on, and I have a lot of those, and so that that's that's why I'm Commend you today. Anybody that feels that haven't done enough. I can't change anybody's opinion, anybody's thoughts, actions. I can only work on one person, and that's myself. Just like you can only work on yourself. And I'll tell you this, I I've never tried or I've never wanted to try as hard as I do and am right now. And I think it's pretty when I look at the totality of the circumstances I think it will show that I am trying. That doesn't mean that there's no work to be done, doesn't mean that again, nobody's perfect, so I'm not perfect. So no matter what, no matter what I do, I'm not going to be perfect. I'm going to do my best. Like I have. And I think the authenticity, like this episode today, is a big reason why we have the following the viewers, the listeners, not just here in the United States, but across the world. Because one of my favorite phrases, I guess, to call it from back in the days, keeping it real. Keeping it real. Just be authentic. Be yourself. It's all you all you can do. It's all I can do. So thank you for being with us. Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. I hope this resonates. I hope this episode gets to the people that feel one way or another about me, about my actions, about behavior. And I wouldn't be here if I didn't care. I wouldn't put this together. I would I would just ignore it and just ignore it. But we handle easy topics and we handle heavy topics like this. So wherever you're watching and listening from, thank you so much. We value you being with us. Whether on this episode or if you've been with us since the beginning.org. Lovevoices.org. Lovevoices.org. Thank you so much for sticking with us, being a part of voices for voices. Love you, we're thinking about you, and we're sending good vibes your way. And we'll see you on the next episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host, Justin Alan Hayes. We'll see you next time. See ya. Bye bye.