Perfectionism. We’ve all been there. Striving for an elusive paradigm that, thankfully, does not exist.
One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given was: Progress, not perfection. As a child who was so preoccupied with the neatness of her handwriting and the symmetry of her drawings that she rarely completed a piece of work; and as young woman who would shovel an entire 500ml tub of cookie and cream Hagan Daaz into her gob because she’d succumbed to a biscuit that day at work; this simple revelation truly set me free.
No longer do I beat myself up for ‘falling off the bandwagon’. Nor do I spiral out of control if I step one foot away from my (sometimes ridiculously high) standards. And yes – I now complete work that before, I was too afraid to even begin. I hit ‘publish’ on posts that are far from perfect and most likely have typos and incorrect grammar! But who’s judging? I finally realised that my biggest judge had always been me. That I was my biggest critic. No-one else. Me. Once I realised this, I could relax. Breathe. I could simply allow myself to be. To be unapologetically me, with all of my flaws and imperfections.
It feels good to have cracks, to have flaws, to be human just like everybody else. Because as Leonardo Cohen reminds us:
There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.
-Leonardo Cohen
Progress, not perfection. As long as we are making progress, learning from our mistakes, remembering to be kind towards ourselves and others whenever those blessed mistakes do appear; then I promise you – those cracks will allow the light to flood your very essence with love and acceptance for all, including yourself.
In love and light,
Hayley xx
Dear Dad 