I discovered yet another pearl of wisdom from Japan. They may be on to something… its been around since 30,000 BC.
I discovered the concept known as wabi-sabi. Have you heard of it?
Wabi-sabi means to accept imperfection. Yep, my favorite. As derived from the Buddhist teachings, this concept embraces the idea of imperfection as an object of value. Value in the process, and necessary part of the journey to mastery.
But, imperfection can be scary. We are surrounded by the idea of perfection. At times, it seems as society is thriving with the idea of perfection. Often it feels as perfection is being expected. It is being taught in schools and demanded in workplaces. It is all around us and triggers all kinds of emotions, including fear, fear of imperfection. It is lurking over our shoulders whenever we start a new project, job, school, etc. It is not going away, no matter how hard we try to hide it or sweep it under the rug. It can be strong, paralyzing, and often preventing us from even starting the project.
So now what? How do we start? I think the first step in dealing with the fear of imperfection is to acknowledge that it exists. It is imperative for us to know this and show our children that fear is real, and it is ok to feel it. Often just this step can make a huge difference.
Then allow yourself to just be or do to start, make the first step, write the first sentence. Remember that we don’t need to be perfect to start, but we need to start to get perfect.
Imperfection is a part of all processes, just like breathing, sleeping, and eating. It is not neither bad not good. It just is 🙂