You Don’t Have to Be Perfect

Or, more realistically, you can be perfect exactly as you are.

That does not mean that there aren’t things you could have done better. There probably are.

Yet, the amazing thing about the adventure through life is you get another chance to try a different way to handle almost any situation that life brings your way. Perfection only exists moment to moment, situation to situation.

Realizing this can be very freeing. Life as it unfolds offers you the unlimited opportunity to learn and grow from your mistakes. If you never make mistakes, you may be denying yourself the valuable opportunity to learn and grow. So much of what interferes with your ability to be happy comes from self-judgment and harsh self-criticism that it is important to consider this aspect of life experience.

Be happy with being you. Love your flaws. Own your quirks. And know that you are just as perfect as anyone else, exactly as you are.
        – Ariana Grande

Perfection, the whole concept of being perfect is a paradox. On one level, you are perfect exactly as you are. On another level, you could use a little improvement. No one is perfect. If you ever meet someone who thinks they are perfect, their imperfection is hubris and pride.

When writing this post, I went to a site to pick a photo to go along with it. I put the word perfection in the search bar. There were 233,000 pages of photos available, many of specific body parts designed to be used for Photoshop (photo editing) versions of unrealistic standards of beauty or perfection. That mere fact showed me how important it is for someone to not hold his or her life up to unrealistic and false standards of excellence.

You might recall that I explored this aspect of our tendency to hold ourselves up to unrealistic and imaginary standards in another Wisdom Wednesday Blog (see hand-picked post link on expectations at the bottom of this page.)

So many times in life, the tendency to hold yourself up to an unrealistic and unachievable standard of perfection creates stress, anxiety, and disappointment. This can interfere with your ability to enjoy life in the moment and appreciate what is actually happening. Life does not demand perfection, but life does require learning.
        – Genevieve Gerard

The ability to learn from a mistake is one of the most fantastic and marvelous things about the human experience. Once a mistake has been made you have the ability, in your complex and remarkable mind, to immediately understand and analyze what you just experienced and quickly evaluate the success and satisfaction with the outcome. What you do not have the ability to do is to change what happened. That is now in the past. It is time to let it go of the past. It is time to forgive, either yourself or another and open up to what is now unfolding at this moment. It is time to learn by considering other options you have.

Once that has been accomplished, the experience, whatever the experience was, good or bad, beautiful or ugly, has served its function in your life. No purpose is served by criticism or judgment beyond the evaluation of how you might wish to handle this kind of situation the next time you encounter it. Ponder on this!

If you store that in your life lessons data bank, then you can move on to whatever is coming into manifestation. What is coming into manifestation is not yet created, is not yet happening, so you need not be concerned until it does. Also, you are assured that you will be given the opportunity to demonstrate and integrate what you have learned.

You are not perfect and you have no need to be perfect. Most believe only God is perfect and you are not God so you can be gentle with yourself, you can be kind to yourself and you can let whatever you have just learned to be an asset to help you cope with and handle whatever new opportunity is coming your way. You can forgive yourself for whatever mistake you might have made either by commission or by omission.

Life will present you with another chance, an opportunity to try or apply the lesson you have just learned. You do not get just one chance or even just a second chance, you get as many chances as you need, unlimited until you have learned what you are trying to learn.

Then, even after you have learned the specific lesson, life comes around again to give you the opportunity to demonstrate what you have learned. Therefore, it is the understanding of an experience or event in life that is important, not the perfection that is more often than not an imaginary standard.

If you think about all of the times in your life that holding an event or situation up to this imaginary measurement of perfection has left you feeling disappointed or dissatisfied then you will have learned a valuable life lesson. If you choose to apply this lesson with compassion and forgiveness, you have set the stage for a new opportunity to present itself to you.

Therefore, I urge you today, to be kind to yourself, be compassionate with yourself, and forgive yourself easily, freely and frequently. You don’t have to be perfect. You already are an excellent student of life by your nature, and that is quite sufficient. In this whole world, indeed in this entire universe, there is only one you. The only perfection you will ever need to achieve is to be you. You are already perfect in the mind of God. Any other kinds of perfection are not only not possible but also unnecessary.

For you to truly be and become all that you already are and learn and evolve and grow through life’s lessons and events is enough. Now take a deep breath in through your nose, exhale fully through your mouth, and say after me:

I am enough; I am enough exactly as I AM

Live your life to the fullest and learn from everything life deposits on your pathway.

Do the best you can with what you have available in your exact situation and circumstance and keep moving forward by learning, forgiving and opening up to whatever unusual imperfect situation is coming to you.

 

This attitude and this approach to your day will set you up to enjoy whatever life brings, knowing that any mistake you may make can be forgiven. Every circumstance and situation is an opportunity to grow and learn. Seize that opportunity.

Take from it as much as you can in the present, then let it go into the past. In this way, you can appreciate the diversity of life’s adventure. Before you, the future is being created, evolving and forming, right now.

Enjoy. Grow. Thrive!

Namaste,

   Genevieve

The Blessing of Love on All That You Do!

 

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Last updated 7-31-2019

 

 

About the author:
Genevieve Gerard teaches Transformational Consciousness – from first awakening to enlightened Soul awareness. She helps you experience the joy that results from the spontaneous “touch of your soul.”

Read more details…

Genevieve has a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Theology and a Master of Arts Degree in Counseling and for over thirty years has worked one-on-one with people who were recovering from devastating disabilities and chronic pain. Teaching the mastery of the mind-body relationship she was one of the early professionals trained in biofeedback, visualization, imagery, and meditation as essential techniques to help people heal their bodies, heal their emotions, heal their minds, and heal their lives.

Genevieve’s work demonstrates what she knows so well, “It is spiritual connectedness that triggers physical healing and emotional and mental well-being.”  Helping people, like you, tap into your higher-self is the power she wields to guide you to heal and transform your life.

Now, with this understanding, she combines the effective techniques she developed over decades teaching mind-body mastery along with her extensive experience in meditation and spiritual development to create a synthesis of mind-body-spirit that delivers complete healing and opens the door to unlimited personal growth and an encounter with your Soul.

In addition to her current life guidance coaching sessions, and workshops performed around the world, Genevieve has produced more than 20+ guided meditations in the last eight years that are available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and her website.

It is her vision that through your experience with the techniques of awareness, visualization, and meditation, the love of your Soul will touch and transform your life through her writings and products. It is her sincere desire that the potential of a life of joy and celebration that seems to elude so many people can become a reality for you, now and forever.

Browse her life story and read the Touch of the Soul that changed her world. To contact Genevieve, visit her keep in touch page.

 

Copyright © 2014-2019 Genevieve Gerard and Touch of the Soul LLC. All rights reserved.