Breaking the Curse of Perfectionism

I cringe at the sight of misspellings and errors—though there are few. I jot down the wrong notes, avoid asking questions, and my memory often leads me astray. But, I do not like mistakes.

I despise being wrong, and the lengths I go to protect myself from that has become alarming. Parading in perfectionism and evading responsibility from anything that's less than, has become a coping mechanism. Remaining in comfortable places, rooted in common procedure, yet limiting growth, has become a safe space. One that prohibits the depths of me from evolving in the way prosperity demands.

See, perfectionism, as ironic as it seems, halts us from becoming greater. We've become so fearful of making mistakes that we don't step out when we're supposed to. We're worried about what things should look like, and when the right time actually is, that we never make the decisions we're supposed to make. We're waiting for perfection to knock at our doors, and refuse to do anything until it does. We refuse to act because of fear of mistakes, not acknowledging that it's the mistakes that help us grow.

But in this season—one that has already proven to be one of the most transformational of my life—I vow to be just that. Wrong. Full of error. Imperfect. I vow to embrace my incorrectness. To bask in my failures simply because I was willing to fail. Because I decided to no longer shelter myself behind perfectionism and comfortability. Because I've decided to stop getting close to the edge and not jumping. Not soaring. Because I decided that I want my faith to be stronger than my fear.

I'm choosing to jump off the ledge with a bag full of mistakes and learn from them in mid-air—or once I hit the ground. I'll gather my belongings at the bottom, and live to share them. To encourage others through them. To inspire myself in spite of them. 

The perfect time won't come unless you make it. The perfect pitch won't get written the first time. The perfect job won't come in the first interview. The perfect man won't come in your first relationship. Everything in this life develops through mistakes, and your fear of making them is what's keeping you locked in stagnancy.

Mistakes will happen. Some larger than others, but all dissatisfying. However mistakes are what force us to be better. They're what inform us of better options and how to make better decisions—next time. Perhaps it's time we stop letting the fear of making them control us.

Perfectionism forces us into molds we won't ever be able to uphold. We weren't created to be perfect; and we probably never will be. Embrace your imperfect selves. Celebrate the mistakes you've made. And hold yourself accountable for doing all that you said you would—whether the time is perfect, or not.