Being our best selves is about cultivating the courage to be vulnerable, authentic, and imperfect. Perfectionism, on the other hand, is the belief that if we live perfect, look perfect, and act perfect, we can minimize or avoid the pain of blame, judgment, and shame. It's that simple. Perfection is not about healthy striving or being our best, it's how we protect ourselves.
In the new book, I write, "Perfectionism is a twenty-ton shield that we lug around thinking it will protect us when, in fact, it’s the thing that’s really preventing us from taking flight."
The book she's referring to is "The Gifts of Imperfection: How to Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Really Are", which I am currently reading, and which is right on the money!
Lauren Bergold posted a link - again - on her blog to Bruce Mau's "Incomplete Manifesto for Personal Growth", which reminded me to re-read it. He encourages us to take risks, make mistakes, capture accidents and so on - in other words, to be imperfect. That's where the learning and growth are...
If I had participated in Brene's protest, my sign would have read "I'm too curious to be perfect!" I am not afraid to delve into things that interest me - new educational opportunities, new artistic mediums or techniques, new sports, etc. - and it's a fairly safe bet that I'm not going to nail everything on the first try. I'm okay with imperfect - even outright failure - so I'm not afraid to give it a go.
For my project this week, I made a card with my husband in mind. It might have more pink than he's comfortable with, but I kinda sorta don't care. Inside it says, "We're the perfect couple - warts and all..."
Stamps: The Cat's Pajamas Puppy Love and I Love Mew; Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Paper: Basic Grey Urban Prairie dp, DCWV white and pink textured cardstock; Accessories/tools: Colored pencils and Prismacolor colorless blending pen, Stampin'Up! decorative label punch, Fiskars threading water border punch, Marvy dimple corner punch, Corner Chomper, Michael's ribbon, Bon Bon turquoise glitter fingernail polish, unknown gemsYou can barely see it in the photo, but the frog and his lady have sparkly turquoise "gems" on the crown and whatever-the-heck-you-call-her-hat. I made them by dipping a toothpick into sparkly nail polish and touching it onto the image where I wanted it. Tricky, tricky!
How do you embrace being perfectly imperfect? Here's Mr. Linky:
2 comments:
I LOOOVE this post! I agree with you.. I'm too curious and busy having fun and learning to be too perfect. I am going to go find the "Gifts of Imperfection" book at our library, too. It sounds amazing. I really enjoy being MYSELF and not trying to be what everyone else wants me to be. There are too many "cookie cutter" girls in my part of the country. I wanna be ME, the cookie with the neon frosting.
Love ya!
E.
I don't know if the book will be in the library yet... It's so new that it's still showing as a pre-order item on Amazon. You never know, though...
I hear you on the cookie-cutter thing in your part of the world - lived there, felt it, have daughters enduring it now. Good luck with that and hooray for you in your neon rebellion!
Post a Comment