15
Mar

Anti-perfectionism

i have to be perfect

What is it with people ( I was going to say, what is it with women, but I see that men have caught the bug too) to want to have everything perfectly set up ready to go,  before we start a venture or an adventure.  We want the perfect spray on tan before we go on holidays, for fear that our pale skin will confess our lack of outdoor activity.  We clean the house from top to tail before we have friends over for a cuppa!  We arrange our website, business card, subscriptions to magazines and get our accounts with the stationers all  organised, before we start telling anyone we are in business.

What is that?

What are people so afraid of?

Of being shown up as  flawed, incapable, of losing control, looking like we are winging it.

What if we flipped it on its head and got a tan naturally whilst on holidays and packed our bags the morning of our flight ( if we forget something we can just get it at the other end or live without it).  What if we hired a house cleaner that did a ‘good enough’ job, freeing up our time to dust off that book manuscript that is in a shoe box under the bed. Then send the unedited manuscript to a dozen agents as a good start to a published book.  What if next time we had a great idea for a business, a product or a surprise party, we started making it happen, without sucking the life out of it by considering its political correctness from every angle and putting out yet another survey monkey.

What would happen if we let go of needing to control Every-Single-Bit-Of-The-Project?  What would happen if we gave up the compulsion for all our ducks to be in a row before we unveiled or launched?  What if the work wasn’t great, but a great start that showed people that our work, and our life for that matter, was an adventurous work in progress.

Stop photoshopping your life.

Stop living in a display home.

Stop airbrushing your experiences.

Make that call now.  The one you have been putting off until tomorrow.

launch the web site as it is and improve on the go.

Exhibit your current batch of art.

Turn up in your jeans.

Outsource or give it up.

Just get on with it,

and stop apologising for your dishes piled in the sink

The cleaner is coming next week!

 


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