Perfection is a lie, so why do we still believe? The truth is it’s a hard idea to shake, partly because every movie, tv show, and commercial pushes this as a possibility, an even more likely possibility if we buy a certain product, get a certain hair cut, or have more of whatever we currently don’t have enough of. Perfection is the kind of lie that keeps us preoccupied with things that don’t matter. But part of the reason we cling to this idea is because everything changes so quickly all the time. As soon as we get use to something it all shifts around again. Maybe that’s why we gravitate towards perfection, it seems like something we can latch onto to ground ourselves in this endlessly changing world and the flux of our lives.
It’s not that perfection is so bad, it just isn’t true. And as with everything that isn’t really real it will end up derailing us from what matters most and get us caught in half-truths. Here we are only a shade of ourselves instead of the whole spectrum. When the lie perfection whispers is finally revealed and the bubble bursts, we are devastated, nothing is as we thought, or tried to make it. The truth has a funny way of upending our lives and everything we believed in and trusted.
Somehow we have to pick ourselves up again and sometimes no matter how much we try we can’t. There we are, mowed down by the truth of life. This would be a sad story if it ended here, but of course it doesn’t, because change is the name of the game. We know that whatever is certain in this moment will shift again into shadows of doubt until finally revealed as deeper truth. This deeper truth asks us embrace the real nature of life as constantly evolving rather than as a stagnant perfection, to be open to all the possibilities, not just the ones we’re invested in. Life is forever moving in ever-expanding cycles of becoming. We need to catch up to that idea or be continually disappointed.
What change is really asking of us is to let go of our preconceptions and move with the natural flow of life instead of resisting what has come our way. By giving change a closer look we can see more clearly what’s being asked of us. To accept what is true for us in the moment and live as fully as we can from that, is the solution to the eternal angst of life not being the way we think it ought to be. And if we can be true to ourselves in the midst of ever-changing change we’ll be able to say yes to a full life, feeling the beauty, the ecstasy, even the pain, and give each their due. When we live in the flow of life’s ceaseless changing we can be our imperfect selves perfectly. And that will be enough.
So let go of the misconceptions that keep you stuck and the half-truths that make you miserable, you didn’t need them anyway. Fearlessly face the changes that go on every second of everyday. Let them help build the you, you were meant to be.
kb
