Peek at My Personal Library
I moved into a new office in the Cleveland area this summer.
I hosted one event where a circle of women shared their stories of awe experiences with each other.
I led a couple of art therapy-informed workshops about the inner critic—one at Summit Artspace and another at the Peg’s Foundation gallery. We used collage materials to create portraits of our personal version of the inner critic. Some used cut-out magazine words to stand in for internal insults. For others, they made a patchwork person that looked burdened by the constant pressure to do better, or created an abstract representation of chronic guilt and mounting anxiety.
Then, after sharing our collages and insights, we altered the collages—adding to them, folding them, drawing on them, etc—in a compassionate way. Befriending and showing compassion to the toughest aspects of ourselves is a major approach I use with my therapy clients.
I read (...listened to…) a lot of books this summer. I started approximately eleven thousand projects in my head and completed none of them. And I spent a lot of time with my kids.
My oldest is a senior this year and, as of this week, has officially been accepted into college. My youngest is just one school year behind. I am, of course, a sentimental son-of-a-gun, and I am increasingly aware that we are living through a season of “lasts.”
So I let myself be there.
My life struggle will always be that I have far more ideas than I have follow-through. Already Good is one of those ideas, with many ideas branching from it. I’m considering what thread to follow next—perhaps anti-perfectionism for artists and creatives, or maybe guidance for those who are parenting high-intensity, perfectionistic kids. This labor of love will continue to coexist with my therapy practice, my family, my actual human body, and all the other things I want to make and do and pay attention to.
In the meantime, I made you something...
My (new) real-life office. It's cozy—you'd like it.
This week I put together a Recommended Reading page on the Already Good website: a list of books, blogs, social media creators, and other things that have shaped all of my theory and practice of anti-perfectionism.
This resource is essentially a peek at my personal library—the stuff I underline, think about in the shower, recommend to clients and friends, and occasionally infodump about at dinner. No affiliate links, sponsorships, paid recommendations, or AI-generated content. Just things I genuinely think are worth your time, with links intended to benefit the original creators directly.
Have you read any of them? Do you have any recommendations to add to my shelf?
© 2026 Summer Hopkins Myers | Already Good
This work is original and protected. Sharing links is welcome; unattributed reproduction and LLM training are not.
