Handling Perfectionism in Your Uni-Verse!

By Donna Gates, as seen on:

Oh, the Perfection Monster!

You’ve met, right? If you haven’t, consider yourself lucky.

The Perfection Monster may seem orderly, pure, and beautiful. But, don’t be fooled! Or you may wind up learning a thing or two from the Perfection Monster.

I have had a few encounters with the Perfection Monster.

It always happens when I am focused on a deadline. When I am too lost in the details. When I get hung up on the results. Or, maybe I’m not paying attention to the people in my life – and the Perfection Monster creeps up behind me.

You may run into the Perfection Monster when you are down on your luck – when things seem like they can’t get any worse. Speaking from experience, this is when I have been hardest on myself.

You will see the Perfection Monster when it is least welcome in your life. Like in the midst of healing from a broken relationship or when trying to make financial ends meet.

This is because the Perfection Monster takes life very seriously. So it loves very serious life issues. It is always moving from one project to another, one person to another – always attempting to fix what seems imperfect. Control what is out of balance. And eliminate what is wrong.

If you become friends with the Perfection Monster, you too begin to see the world as dismal, dark, and broken. It is so uncomfortable in its own skin. All it sees are problems and flaws.

Let’s face it – real perfection is wholeness. Totality. It is in the past, the present, and the future. It is the ability to see it ALL – including the goofy mistakes, the missteps, and the errors – as a part of something infinite and totally complete.

If you have lived even a little bit of life, you already know that the Perfection Monster isn’t so big, bad and scary – you know that the Perfection Monster is mostly afraid.

Because things like beauty, order, and purity come from the quirks, the kinks, the bends, and the obstacles in life.

And real perfection comes from a push pass our limits. It cannot be measured and adhered to like a set of laws. Real perfection is the good and the bad. The dark and the light. It is the constant dance between utter fullness and absolute emptiness.

When working on your body and your health, perfection must give way to flexibility and balance. Extremes can become just as dangerous to the body as a dis-ease that we do not view with acceptance.

Try looking in the mirror today and be thankful for your uniqueness.

Try listening to your inner voice this week and when you hear a critical remark, remind yourself that there are no mistakes, just opportunities to learn.

Go ahead and shoo the Perfection Monster along – ‘cause there is nothing here for the Perfection Monster to fix.

Please let me know how you deal with your Perfection Monster!