“Imperfection is perfection to a beautiful perspective.”

The courage to be imperfect, how I love this statement. It has been on repeat in my mind since I heard it last week while listening to a TED talk given by research professor, Miss Brene Brown. Initially, this phrase seems almost paradoxical, but I feel it could not be better stated. If you give it enough thought, you will realize it does, in fact, take courage to be imperfect.

YOU REALIZE YOU WILL FAIL

When you have the courage to be imperfect, you are aware that failure will have its part in the equation. Throughout my life, I have avoided opportunities because the fear of failure is more prominent in my mind than the possibility of succeeding. What have I learned in doing this? You miss out. Big time. When you’re tiptoeing around something driven by fear, you miss out on the actual experience, ultimately, you miss out on living. No one consciously pens in failure as a part of their plan, but I assure you that you are better off if you are prepared for it. If you have ever listened to a successful person story, you will see that their “failing” in their life is what makes them… them.

When Steve Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985, that could have easily been “the end” of his story. He could have thrown in the towel and said okay, that’s enough, and that would have been all he wrote. But it’s not. This horrible “failure” turned out to be what made Steve Jobs, Steve Jobs, eventually becoming Apple’s CEO among many other successes. It’s not a question of IF you will fail in life, but rather, HOW you will deal with the failures that occur in your life.

Although brutal and ugly in the actual moment of passing, in time, you see that failure becomes the jewel of many people stories, it is what strengthens them and makes them wise. It is what makes their story unique. Failure is a part of not only succeeding but of simply living. And if you think about it, it takes the same amount of energy as it does trying and failing as it does being fearful of trying at all…so which one will you choose?

YOU BANISH THE ALL OR NOTHING MINDSET

I used to pride myself in this attribute: All or nothing, go big or go home, if you aren’t going to give it your all, why even try. I had to wake up. These mottos may work for some people, and I do understand their intent, to strive for excellence, but for me, these mottos became more of a deterrent than helpful tools.

It's all good when I am willing to give my everything, but what about when I feel that my everything isn’t good enough? This all or nothing mentality would in turn work against me, leaving me standing on the sidelines. I wouldn’t even try. I would completely miss out on experiencing life because I was fearful that my efforts would be sub-par. When you have the courage to be imperfect, you erase the zero or ten mentality. Sometimes, simply getting something done is way better than sitting in an inactive mode, not even attempting, for fear of it not being done just perfectly. I have also learned that in getting something done that I believe falls short of perfection, is usually pretty good, I just downplayed it far too much. We are often our own worst critics, and our weak efforts, or what we view as weak, in the end, can turn out to be pretty damn good if we would stop being so hard on ourselves.

What do you gain from this? You gain experience through it. You try anyway. You get it done anyway. You dive in any way, fear in hand, knowing that the result may be imperfect, but at least you’re living IN the game and not on the sidelines. As a saying that I recently heard states: A man that tries and fails many times, is a thousand times more of a man than the man who doesn’t try at all.

TAKE ACTION

When you have the courage to be imperfect you are not afraid to take action. You may not know which direction to take, or which decision is best, but regardless you take action. It is very easy to get caught up in the mental cycle of over analyzing while weighing every last pro and con of the situation. Whereas this can be helpful to a point, it often leads to a state of inactivity. It paralyzes you, cementing you into a mental tug of war trapping you inside of your thoughts rather than living in the real world and taking action. To have the courage to be imperfect you must swallow the fact that you will fail, and that is not such a bad thing. Through the failures, you will learn. You will grow. You will strengthen. In doing do, you must erase the all or nothing mindset. It’s okay to not be a ten in everything you do. It’s great to aim for your best, but the need for a constant state of perfection is a way to set yourself up for disappointment and exhaustion and can create an excuse for lack of action altogether. You must take action to gain experience, to live, and it’s going to be imperfect many more times than it is perfect. And that’s also a really beautiful thing if you have the right perspective. This week, get out there, muster up all the courage you have inside, and be imperfect because hidden within there is a unique, beautiful perfection in all imperfection.