40 Days of Forgiveness – Day 21 Giving Up Being Perfect

“Today is a great day to give your best and be ok with the fact that it was not perfect.” ~ Taylor Tagg

Human perfectionism is one of those things we seem programmed to achieve.

Get it right, no get it perfect!

That’s tough to do all the time or any time for that matter.

Trying to be the symbol of perfectionism gets us in a mental state of continual disappointment and non-acheivement because our efforts aren’t enough…ever.

We let good effort and positive action pass us by, focusing intently on what was not done instead of what was done well.

Perfectionism can kill dreams, shut out happiness, and tune out small successes disguised as significant milestones.

Remember that your life is set up to stumble, so that you may get back up again to learn, to grow, and to prosper.

Napoleon Hill said, “Failure is a trickster with a keen sense of irony and cunning. It takes great delight in tripping one when success is almost with reach.”

Recently, I asked two good friends of mine come to Memphis to speak about their own adversities and defeats. It was amazing.

Tom Cunningham, Tim Chhim, and I spoke on practical ways to learn from defeats in life so that a person may take their own power to use and become who they were designed to be.

Our stories were prime examples that if perfection were our main focus, we would have bypassed the lessons that allowed us to not only survive but to thrive in our lives today.

All of that would have been lost with perfection.

Perfection is no one’s fault. I am a former perfectionist who now models excellence.

I realized in my own life that perfection was my defense mechanism to protect myself from blame, shame, and hurt.

“If I am perfect, then they will finally reward me.”

What a crock.

My own thinking was my own undoing. But I realized that to truly grow I needed to give myself a break and forgive my own perfectionism.

That’s just what I did.

Now my life is a steady stream of growth and miracles, built one step at a time and full of mistakes.

But I take my mistakes in stride, not to accomplish perfectionism, but to be the best Taylor Tagg that I can be in the moment.

And that’s good enough.

Kindly see the Triple T Team page for more information about Tom, Tim, and Taylor’s talk in Memphis and their speaking availability for your group or team.