The Perfection Myth

I’ve always been told I have the “gift of gab” and for the past few years I’ve been putting pen to paper with my random thoughts aka musings. The inspiration for my musings sometimes comes from things that I'm experiencing in my life but most often from the wonderful feedback from those that take the time to read my babblings. One day a dear friend and I were talking about finding the strength to face challenges. He too had been through a lot in his life and in the past his method for dealing with painful challenges was to avoid them.

I told him that avoidance was a tune I used to sing quite well. In my mind it was easier to distract myself instead of facing the problem at hand. In the past I struggled constantly with my weight. Up until college I was a “perfect” size 3 and could eat whatever I wanted. I weighed myself often and took pride in the fact that my metabolism was so great. When I went to college the freshman 15 (more like 25) hit hard. My perfect size 3 quickly graduated to a size 6. Instead of addressing the problem I threw away my scale and bought a whole new set of clothes. This sustained me for awhile, but not too long.

The problem with avoidance is that in the end whatever we are trying to get away from resurfaces and sometimes causes severe emotional ups and downs. Eventually I decided to address my unhealthy eating habits and make a change for the better. Even though I never saw a size 3 again I am much healthier and happier.


As we live there will be parts of ourselves that we will need to work on and it is important that we honor and work on our challenges as they come. It can be a slow process but it is a very necessary one.

In life we are always encouraged to strive for perfection, but what does that truly mean? Does it mean that we are finally free of all of our bad habits, negative thoughts and moments of "insanity?" Are we all going to miraculously "get it" and live out the rest of our lives in a state of bliss and happiness all the time?

Instead of thinking that your life would be perfect if only _________(fill in the blank), know that true perfection is acknowledging that we all "need work" and taking those baby steps to better our lives. So today, honor your unique perfection and embrace that we are all a masterpiece in progress.