Perfectionism: One lie & a truth - By Lauren Copeland

I am so excited for the second in a series of guest posts from my fellow Boss Moms! What I love about Lauren is that she is very honest about how the same struggles affect ALL of us, and giving clear examples and steps to overcome them. Like this post on perfectionism... who hasn't fallen into this trap before? I hope you enjoy her insights! 

PERFECTIONISM: ONE LIE & A TRUTH  -  BY LAUREN COPELAND

Perfection is a bad boss. As in, a micromanaging boss that is always breathing down your neck. I remember when I first considered becoming a Life Coach, and a thought that crossed my mind was, ‘I’m too introverted, why even try?’. There was NO way I had all the traits that a perfect coach needed.

I mean seriously, what does a ‘perfect’ coach even look like? I didn’t know. However, my inner critic was whispering that it was anything but me.

Perfection is lying to us.
The lie? That we can and have to ‘obtain’ it (perfection).

But there is a truth.
The truth? Perfection is not something we obtain. It is a PERCEPTION.

A perfect workout looks different for you than it does for your best friend. A perfect dinner looks one way for me, a different way for you. Maybe yours is a frozen lasagna, hot out of the oven with no kids whining over the chunky tomatoes; while mine might look like a 4-course meal with an epic dessert. The truth is, is doesn’t really matter! We beat ourselves up over perceptions, and sometimes we let it scare us enough that we never even get started in the first place.

I can think of a million conversations that never started because I was fearful of sounding ‘foolish’.
I can think of a thousand workouts that never began because I didn’t have ‘enough’ time.
I can think of hundreds of projects that were never finished because they were not turning out ‘right’.

Do you have some things coming to mind, too? Perfection makes life HARD. It eats at us. And it wears us down until we give up, walk away, or stress ourselves out never being able to get things good enough.

But what if perfection didn’t have to be our boss? What if we chose, right now, what side of the perfection perception we want to be on? (That’s a tongue twister, huh?)
What would it look like?
What would you choose?

Life CAN be perfectly imperfect. What if we let go of the lie, and started chasing the truth?

Send that email you still think isn’t good enough (even though you’ve tweaked it 10 times).
Start that project you’ve been putting off because you don’t have ‘all’ the supplies.
Wear that shirt you love, even if Sally at work probably won’t like it.
Do that workout even though you only have 10 minutes instead of 30, today.

To help you quickly discover what perfectly imperfect means for you and your life, I put together this simple guide sheet, so that you can get started chasing the truth, right now! Grab it HERE!

There is power in answering the tough questions and digging deeper. And there is unmeasurable power and peace that comes from finding perfect imperfection for yourself. I’ll see you on the other side of perfection! (And don’t forget your guide sheet!)

   XOXO – Lauren

 www.laurenecopeland.com                                                                                    www.facebook.com/lecopeland