During my kickboxing class a few weekends ago, I caught myself saying “practice makes perfect!”, as I was guiding members through a new combo. Immediately after it came out of my mouth, I realized that’s not true. Practice doesn’t make perfect because no one and nothing is perfect. Practice makes you better, not perfect. It helps you get stronger, it makes things easier, but if you strive for perfection, you’ll be striving for something unattainable.

It’s funny because literally as I was starting to draft this post (yes, I realize I started this weeks ago and am just getting it up for you today), I checked my email to find the last Bikini Rebellion email from Neghar. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably seen some deeper than normal posts, right? If you’re not an Instagram-er- here are some examples: Self Radical Love, being more than a number on a scale, only your opinion of yourself matters, etc. Day 14 of the challenge was all about perfectionism, and how we are not and will never be perfect. We are enough- right this instant you are enough.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the notion of perfection. If we can just run faster, do better push-ups, make healthier meals, be the best spouse/parent/child/friend/etc., be more positive, things will be perfect, right? Wrong. All my life I’ve strived for perfection and only am I recently recognizing that there is no such thing.

But just because no one is perfect and perfection is an unattainable goal doesn’t mean we should throw in the towel and say “eff it!”… it just means we should accept where we are right now, how far we’ve come and what we do on a daily basis that makes us who we are. We may not always get things right, we may say the wrong things, we may not have motivation to clean the house/grocery shop/workout, we may not always be working to our very best potential… but that’s totally OK. We are living, we are learning and we are experiencing new things that help us build character, develop new relationships and new passions. And some days might be easier than others, but that’s just the way life works. It ebbs and flows and if we expect things to always be perfect we are just setting ourselves up for disappointment- where’s the fun in that?!
Continue reading →