Are you a recovering perfectionist? I certainly am.
I used to strive for perfection in everything I did: my career, appearance, relationships. I was so concerned with appearing perfect that I would exhaust myself and rarely enjoy the experience while it was happening. (Ever thrown a party and then spent the whole night working, not taking the time to really connect with your guests? Just me?)
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Here’s the news: There’s no such thing as perfect. Perfect is only perfect for an instant. The world we live in is constantly changing
and evolving, and so are we. So, if something is “perfect,” it is only perfect for a moment in time. If it stays there, it becomes irrelevant because it will move into stagnation. So trying to achieve perfection can keep you from starting or finishing a project because of the constant judgment. Here is one of my favorite quotes as of late:
“Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. Don’t let good be the enemy of done.”
This is the meditation teacher’s version of “Just do it.”
What if, instead of trapping yourself in a prison of perfection, you shifted your focus to taking the best action for that specific moment? What is perfect for right now will not be perfect 10 minutes from now, and the only way to be able to intuit what the "best right action" is for this moment is to be easy with yourself and listen. That feat is virtually impossible for perfectionists.
By letting go of the idea that there’s a special fixed formula for perfection, we’re better able to adapt to new circumstances and work with nature to achieve relevance in this ever-evolving world.
Want to dive deeper? The video below gives you tools for moving from perfect to relevant—and encouragement on how to Just Do It.
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Emily Fletcher is the founder of Ziva Meditation, the world's first online meditation training program, and the author of Stress Less, Accomplish More. Ziva's mission is to make meditation attractive and accessible to modern people who are ready to up-level their performance and their life. Recently featured in the New York Times and regarded as one of the leading experts in Vedic meditation, Fletcher has been invited by companies like Google, Barclays Bank, Viacom, Chanel, Coca-Cola, and sweetgreen to help up-level company performance through meditation.
Fletcher has had the honor of speaking at Summit Series, Awesomeness Fest, and the Omega Center. She began her nine years of training in Rishikesh, India, and was inspired to teach after experiencing the profound physical and mental benefits meditation provided her during her 10-year career on Broadway, which included roles in Chicago, The Producers, and A Chorus Line.
With her high-performance background and intensive meditation training, Fletcher is perfectly suited to teach busy people how to incorporate meditation and visualization into their life, and she's an mbg course instructor! You can learn with her by joining her course, Guided Visualizations: How to Overcome Your Fears, Excel at Work, and Have Mind-Blowing Sex. She has also created a powerful guided visualization called zivaDETOX. It's a simple, downloadable audio that is designed to help you release thoughts and stress that are not serving you and to get you on the right path to leaving the stress behind.