Appreciating The Beauty Of Cracks

Perfectionism is wanting things to be perfect before you take action.

This topic is important because there is a big cost to not taking action for the price of waiting for things to be perfect. The only problem with waiting for things to be perfect is that no matter what you do anyway, it can always be improved. If youre waiting for things to be perfect for example the book you’re writing to be perfect the facebook live your planning to do to be perfect, the coaching session you plan to do to be perfect or the sales call you know you want to make to be perfect or your presentation or public talk to be perfect, you could be waiting for a very long time and even forever. And delay or waiting will kill your dream and it will destroy your ability to help people.

For some people perfectionism is something that pops up every now and then for them and they don’t use it as a road block to taking action so they make progress relatively fast. This is in comparison to the compulsive or chronic perfectionist who plans and plans and plans, and then is planning to plan, but never acts because they are still perfecting.

Which person do you think is going to make progress the fastest?

Regardless of where you are on the scale of perfectionism, 0 being not at all and 10 being the compulsive chronic perfectionist if you want freedom from perfectionism, we have to make the long journey from, what will people think? To I am enough! You have to claim the truth of who you are and know who you are is separate to what you do and its separate to what you have. You also have to be willing to give yourself a break and appreciate the beauty of the cracks or imperfections. It’s a decision to to be kind to yourself and talk to yourself in the same way you’d talk to someone you care about.

You want to own the parts of yourself that don’t fit in with who or what you think youre supposed to be. You must give up striving for other peoples approval of your worthiness.

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of done. A 20 minute walk done is better than a 10 km walk that you don’t do. The imperfect book that gets published is better than the perfect book that never leaves your computer. The sales call that you make is better than the sales call you don’t make.

Perfectionism is the enemy of done.

Its only done that leads to progress and that leads to growth. And ultimately later it will only lead to success.

The best quote that I love about perfectionism is ‘there is a crack in everything that’s how the light gets in.’ 

Give up perfectionism and get it done! You'll be glad you did!