Wholeness Over Perfection

I am a perfectionist to my core.

Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been plagued by this voice in the back of my mind telling me when things aren’t right, and by right I mean perfect. Matching socks, perforated edges ripped flawlessly, colored pencils all facing the same direction in my pencil box... That was my bliss growing up, and although the tasks have changed over the years, the need for perfection has remained the same. I’ve probably edited this paragraph a dozen times trying to get it ‘just right.’ This blog in itself took me six months to publish because I was more focused on it being perfectly curated than I was about writing.

Having a perfect anything sounds great in theory, but perfection doesn’t exist. It’s an exhausting concept created by man to make us feel less than we are; To make us feel like we aren’t good enough for the world in all our glorious imperfections. It’s an impossible standard to meet, and I think we put that on ourselves because we know we can’t meet it, and it gives us an easy out when things don’t go our way.

Everyone has a unique way of showing up in the world, but most of us aren’t showing up at all. We procrastinate on our goals and dreams because we don’t think we have the tools we need, or we think the world just didn’t deal us the right set of cards. I’m calling bullshit. We aren’t chasing our dreams because we’re scared. We’re scared what we create won’t be perfect and everyone will judge us for it, and you know what? It won’t be perfect and people will judge, but we have to show up anyway! We will never get better if we don’t start in the first place. We’ll just sit around wallowing in self-pity and blaming the world for our failures when in reality we haven’t allowed ourselves to fail because we haven’t even started.

The world deserves to know who we are exactly as we are. Being ourselves and living our truths wholeheartedly in a world that’s constantly telling us we aren’t enough gives others courage and permission to do the same. All it takes is one person standing up and saying, “I am enough,” for the ripple to begin.

So this is me standing up. I am enough. You are enough. We are all enough. Let this be the year we chase wholeness instead of perfection and when those thoughts of not being enough start to creep back in just remember you are not alone. We’re in this together. Now go make some magic.