Perfection is like waiting for an uptown train on the downtown side of the platform. It will be a long waiting game because quite simply it’s not going to happen.
There are too many variables in the mix to create perfection, so why are so many therapists so hell bent on waiting for things to be perfect before they will make them public or available to the world?
Yesterday I viewed the 2009 Archibald prize entrants and the one I thought was perfect, wasn’t the one the judges chose. Am I wrong? No, I just have a different view on what is perfect, as did all the other people voting in the public choice section.
Driving your business to a state of perfection is an impossible destination because the next person after you to view or read or experience your work will have a totally different take on what you have created.
I believe what is important is to get your work out for people to see and experience, take their adulation and criticism and build it into your next product or upgrade or new concept.
I am much the better for having viewed the picture I loved yesterday. That artist would have deprived me of that state of joy had they not put brush to canvas or not entered it in a contest where I had the opportunity to see it.
I love the story of the virtuoso violin player who walks off stage after a brilliant performance and announced “tonight I played that piece perfectly…..tomorrow night I will play it even better”.
As we grow and learn in this process called having a small business we can be like the violinist, understanding that even things we worked on “until they were perfect” will often have space to be improved somewhere in the future.
I have been reminded of this as I have been working more with live groups of people. One event in particular went hideously wrong despite everything being put in place “perfectly”.
The feedback from the audience at this event was that they loved that we shared the “imperfection” with them. It meant they could understand that things can go wrong but the world doesn’t end when they do.
What’s more it gave them the permission they needed to have a go themselves because the worst results they could get were the same disasters we did!
In fact one of the attendees coined this phase which has been quoted frequently by me ever since:
"It doesn’t have to be perfect
to be perfect"
Leighann Reitano
The Soul of One
I shared this quote with a coaching colleague in Canada and she came up with this briefer version:
"Imperfect is Perfect"
Andrea J Lee
Multiple Streams of Coaching Income
If the moment doesn’t have to be perfect, then perhaps some more of us can be encouraged to have a go at more things?
I don’t know about you but when I look at these quotes it takes the heat off any situation. It makes starting a newsletter, building a blog, putting together your first workshop or even taking your first paid client easier.
Now before you all get too excited I’m not saying this gives you permission to cut corners or be “barely good enough” but we could all embrace the thought that things could be out in marketplace being put to the test and improved upon as you go.
The first newsletter I wrote is VERY different to the ones I write now. I spent hours on my first efforts and they were professionally edited (no spellos or typos – my heart felt thanks to Patricia McKenzie who hauled me through that process).
These days I’ve accepted that there will be things that probably wouldn’t pass in an English test but I know the content adds value to your business. I’m happy if my “imperfect” message gets one of you off your butt and into action, the imperfect grammar then pales in significance to you taking action!
Where are you currently waiting for the “perfect moment” to occur to release something or do something?
Could you perhaps accept that imperfection is in fact perfect and move forward anyway?
In a synchronistic twist to the collection of quotes on imperfection, I was reading a book by a wonderful Indigenous Elder called Min Mia who is one of the keepers of women’s lore/law. She tops the scale for nailing the perfection concept in two words.
“Perfectly Imperfect”
Min Mia
Under the Quandong Tree
I loved the concept of “perfectly imperfect”. Min Mia holds the teachings of 13 Australian animals and I did a Song Painting workshop to learn “how to” paint Min Mia’s animals. There were about six of us in the class and we learnt how to paint the basic shapes.
We had many different coloured cloths we could choose from for each flag and each person interpreted the shapes with different colours and different combinations of dots and lines and they all turned out different - they were all “perfectly imperfect”.
My flags hang in my kitchen and I’m no artist but I love them and think they are just perfect! So perfect in fact that my friend used them as the artwork on his CD – you can see my flags flying on his website here.
But are they technically correct......... NO............and did some of the other students in the class technically paint better flags than mine ...........YES.......but mine have bought joy and purpose to many without being perfect, just as everyone else's did on every level.
When you are in the flow even something appearing imperfect turns out to be just perfect.
Perfect comes from a place of EGO whereas imperfect comes with the gift to learn or improve.
So from now on my standard is “perfectly imperfect” - what is yours?
You can comment on this topic at my blog or let us know your favourite Archibald Prize entrant
This was my favourite Archibald Finalist
Artist: Jan Williamson
Subject: Nancy Kunoth Petyarr
What was yours?
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