After a rather dismal response to last week’s blog post on What Makes a Champion , I’ve decided to give equal time to my audience of apparent underachievers J. Hence, this post on why it’s cool to be imperfect!
Actually, I was inspired after running across a blog called the Imperfect Gardener. Its’ writer, Carol Davis, mentioned how much love and support she has received from the gardening community. Now this lady is truly a gardening SME, but presents herself (humbly) as an imperfect gardener. And people embrace that!
So I started considering the top reasons people embrace imperfection:
1. There is less pressure when you allow for imperfections. Sometimes it really is ok to be “good enough.” After all, perfection is, at best, a temporary state.
2. Everyone loves an underdog. We all cheer for those who haven’t made it yet…
3. There is great humility in imperfection. Humbleness sells.
4. Accepting imperfections allows you to chase more dreams. If one doesn’t work out, you can happily move on to another.
5. Flaws make us more interesting characters. After all, being predictable can sometimes be insanely boring. None of us are perfect people, anyway. We are imperfect people with a few perfect moments.
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When you’ve accepted your imperfectness, your attitude is more laid-back in general. If you don’t get it right, you just try again. That’s very freeing. And full of permission. And who doesn’t like that?
And if you’re still being too hard on yourself, do go back and read my blog post on Cutting Yourself Some Slack. Because the Olympics are over, right? ;)
I’d love to hear your thoughts about what I’ve written, and your own experience of imperfection. Please feel free to leave a comment.
Marianne M. Smith
Writer At The Ranch
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time
http://writerattheranch.com
wordsmith@writerattheranch.com
Writer At The Ranch
Making You Look Brilliant One Word At A Time
http://writerattheranch.com
wordsmith@writerattheranch.com
I would first like to thank you for pandering to "the rest of us". Secondly, I want to laud you for bringing Michael J. Fox into a conversation about perfection. Ultimately however, I would like to suggest that your post neglects "Southern culture". In the South and especially in the throwback, Protestant South we do not generally speak in terms of perfection. Like the little guy from Family Ties says, that is "God's business".
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Southerners who DO think in that vain (and I don't pretend to speak for all Southerners) really think that "imperfection" is the alternative. Sometimes, instead, we shoot for perfection, but do not dare to call it by it's name. Or, if we are truly wise we'll know that the thing we create may appear to be perfect in the eyes of one or two people, but not in the eyes of everyone.
I actually wrote a poem once that I thought was perfect. Naturally I can't find it anymore.
Thanks for making me smile, Russ! And you're right about the South! Dig deeper for that poem--I'd like to read it. Hope you are starting to feel better. It is easier to read my blog posts on pain pills :).
DeleteI can really embrace this "imperfect" thing. I are
ReplyDeleteStingray: :)
DeleteI love this Marianne! I may have to post parts of it on facebook to encourage a few friends I have that could use this encouragement. We truly are our harshest critics!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing it, Jeannine! Means a lot...
DeleteAnd we do seem to be so much harder on ourselves than we would ever dream of being to others! I wonder why that is???