It has long been my position that there is no such thing as perfect.  There are no perfect people.  There are no perfect days.  No perfect relationships.  Even in our highly automated world, there are mistakes and screw ups.  We may WANT and EXPECT perfection but it’s only an illusion.

My work world deals with less than perfect situations.  Sidewalks that aren’t perfectly level. Houses that aren’t perfectly built.  People make mistakes yet we demand perfection.

As hard as I try, I am far from perfect at work, at home, in my personal life.  It can consume you, this quest for perfection.  Sometimes I feel frozen at work because I am terrified of making a “wrong” decision, of not getting things “right”.

I was telling my current manager about a boss I had years ago who forced me WAY outside of my comfort zone in the work world.  It was a unique situation, one that rarely occurs in the business world. How many business owners are willing to assign work to a (fairly new) employee and then say – “take some time, you’ll figure it out”.

I soon figured out this was a gift, one that needed to be respected and treasured.  We so rarely have faith in other people – faith that they will figure things out while making mistakes along the way.  We rarely have faith in ourselves, that faith that we will rebound from errors.  That we will figure things out after some false starts and mistakes.

This quest for perfection spills into our personal lives.  We expect other people to somehow be better than we are.  We expect them to not make mistakes.  We expect no less from ourselves.  So we spend so much time being afraid of just being WHO WE ARE for fear of being “less” while we are “enough”.  We are always enough.

Humans make mistakes, doesn’t that help us grow as people?  If we aren’t venturing out of our shell, coloring outside of the lines then we will never grow.  What I learned from that old boss of mine is to not be afraid of a new challenge.  To not be afraid to make a mistake.  To not be afraid to figure things out.  And never be afraid to own your mistake and say “I’m sorry”.

Failure means growth.  It means we are taking a less traveled path.  It means trying new things and being able to admit it’s just not what makes us tick.  It means it’s ok to stop, regroup and try again.