How Sticky is Your Stickler?
Sticky Like Gum in Your Hair?
Are you Ready to get Unstuck?
“Perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat, pretending to be elegant when actually it's just terrified.” – Liz Gilbert
That one hurts doesn’t it.
I mean when you read this quote, the first thing you think is, “how dare she”, as if Liz Gilbert slapped you right across the face. Perhaps even at this moment your hand is rubbing your perfectly sore cheek.
Take a few breaths, and once you’ve calmed down, ask yourself: what is the underlying feeling behind you needing everything to be perfect?
Perhaps you’re not teaching yoga yet, because when you practice on your own, you still make a few mistakes here and there. What is it you think will happen if you make those mistakes in front of a class? What are you afraid of?
Maybe you feel like you need a real art degree, to open up your own photography studio. You’ve been taking pictures for over a decade and have been passionate about art and design just as long. What is that you’re telling yourself? What are you afraid of?
That manuscript you’ve been working on for 10yrs, just isn’t perfect enough to send to publishers. What do you think will happen if they receive it? How will you know when it’s perfect, and if that will actually even matter? What are you afraid of?
Your first coaching program has to cover all the bases, and what if you’re missing something, you don’t know what, but there could be something. What is it that could happen if it’s not absolutely perfect? What are you afraid of?
Striving for perfection, means postponing your life for fear of failing somehow. It truly is a fancy way of saying you’re scared, that you’re afraid. There is however something magical that happens once you remove the mink coat and fancy shoes that perfectionism dons. It allows you to deal with what truly is under it all.
Fear in all its nakedness.
Fear, quivering and covering itself up from being exposed without the armor of boas and pearls.
Fear, staring back at you in the mirror, feeling insecure and frail, no longer prince/princess just a petrified popper.
It becomes weaker. It becomes more approachable and less glamourous. The unveiling could ignite some other emotion in you, like empathy or anger. Yet, it still hurts a little. It hurts because sometimes the truth does hurt. Embrace that hurt, knowing when things are seen for what they really are, you can figure out how to approach them accordingly.
What perfect thing will you strip down to the bare bones of fear? Now that you know, all that was holding you back was fear, what will you take action on?