Inner Mean Girl Cleanse: P-E-R-F-E-C-T (Find Out What it Means to Me)

This week's Inner Mean Girl to tackle is perfection. If you've read my past Inner Mean Girl posts, you know I am far from perfect. Still, we all aim to be, or at least try to give off the appearance of, near perfection in our lives to some extent. But it simply isn't possible. The cleanse suggests combating the urge to drive yourself to perfection by underpromising and overdelivering, or going for the "C" (versus the "A" grade in life), but as an ambitious New Yorker, that simply isn't my style. I believe you can erase the stress of needing to be perfect without sacrificing the quality and drive behind your work, and that just comes in giving yourself a break. As my parents used to tell me, if you've given something your best, that's all you can do. My yoga teacher said something similar the other day - that the goal of yoga (and life itself, perhaps) is to "become more skilled at being yourself." Really, what sense of happiness can you derive from living up to someone else's standard of "perfection"? Being true to our own individual nature is the ideal, and only, "perfection" to achieve.

Wanting to be "perfect" in a societal-common-denominator sense is dangerous because it leads to the other Inner Mean Girls: If we are "perfect" women, we're probably overbooked serving on PTA and charitable boards, while working, raising ("perfect") children, are excellent cooks, have a loving ("perfect") partner, the house, the car, the landscaping, the appliances - the epitome of Leave it to Beaver happiness. And if we're stepping into "Keeping-up-with-the-Joneses" territory, that makes us compare ourselves to what others have - what other levels of "perfect" in which other women have succeeded. It's a never-ending cycle where individual triumph and self-satisfaction (and esteem) are left to the wayside. And that's no way to live.

So yes, all you can do is become the best YOU. And you will be imperfect, as we all are, but you will also have the self-acceptance to embrace those imperfections. And that's all that you could ask for.

How do you become more skilled at being yourself?

See all Inner Mean Girl cleanse posts here.


Disclosure: I am receiving a thank-you gift for participating in this project.