Embrace Imperfection: 9 Reasons You Should

ByMichelle Garrett

Perfection isn’t something anyone can achieve.

The trick is to learn to let go of it and to live a happy life accepting yourself as you are.

Here are nine reasons why you should let it go:

  1. It frees up your time. When you’re not obsessing about making your body perfect or your project perfect, you have more time to spend on other projects or passions.
  2. You’ll feel better. You’ll have less stress which can cause depression, insomnia or other physical problems, from weight gain to high blood pressure.
  3. Once you stop obsessing, you begin to enjoy life more. And the people around you will be happier.
  4. Letting go of perfection lets you make mistakes. It lets you get past the worry and fear that it won’t perfect.
  5. You’ll quickly realize life isn’t perfect. You’ll see that the universe is chaotic. For example, your best programmer might get sick in the middle of a big project. Or a natural disaster may crush your car. Control what you can and accept the rest.
  6. Accepting imperfection allows you to grow. Trying to be perfect keeps you stagnant.
  7. You become more aware of what near-perfection looks like. You’ll see it in the beauty of someone’s smile or the laughter from a simple mistake that doesn’t matter.
  8. You’ll begin to practice self-compassion. You start to accept yourself as the way you are. Your flaws are what make you unique.
  9. Embracing imperfection allows you to examine your fears of failure or of mistakes and why they are holding you back. It lets you see what is really behind those fears. I like to do a three-step examination of what’s causing that fear. It goes something like this:
    1. Name the basic fear: Fear of failing
    2. What’s behind that fear? Keep narrowing it down until you get to the core of the fear. Are you afraid of being laughed at? Are you afraid of not being liked? Why? Just remember we aren’t in a high school popularity contest in life. Our life is ours to be lived how we want to feel.
    3. What would happen if you failed? Would it cause a major catastrophe or health problem?

9 Reasons You Should Embrace Imperfections

Embrace Imperfection: Ways to Let Go

Here are 3 ways you can let go of perfection:

  • Change any negative self-talk. Critical self-talk only reinforces perfectionism.
  • Practice self-compassion. Being compassionate with yourself helps you accept you will make mistakes and to learn from them.
  • Spend time examining your goals and expectations. Are they attainable? If not, change them or break them down into smaller steps if you need to.

Letting go of perfection and embracing imperfection allows you to really become a happier person. You become free to pursue what you want to make your life successful, whether that’s in your profession, your relationships, as a parent or as a person.

Trying to be perfect is tiring. It puts you in a position of paralysis to move forward. It holds you back while everyone else moves on. Instead, when you embrace imperfection, you can be successful and happy.

What to do next?

Let go of trying to be perfect. That’s it.

You, nor your circumstances or the people in your life need to be perfect in order to acceptable. In fact, people as a general rule, like real. Real means mistakes, flaws and imperfection.

Embrace Imperfection to be Happy and Successful

  • Stop comparing yourself to others.
  • Accept your body as it is. Eat and exercise to be healthy, not to be a certain size.
  • Do something you excel at. Find your passion and talent. Maybe you’re amazing working with kids or repairing autos and just don’t know it yet.
  • Spend time outside. Soak up the sun. Take pictures.
  • Forgive yourself and others who you’ve hurt or have hurt you.

Go ahead and embrace imperfection. You’ll be happy you did.