Hi Friends!
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about taking risks in life and how sometimes the need to be perfect can get in our way. We may be really drawn to something, but we feel like we have to be perfect at it before we do it, so we never give it a shot. We’re afraid of messing up and looking like a fool.
I had this fear before I started doing readings professionally. Even though I had been using tarot for years and had received lots of great feedback from people I’d done readings for, I didn’t think I was good enough to start charging because I expected to know every single detail of the person’s life before I would feel qualified to begin. That was my standard of perfection.
Then, I met a psychic who had been doing readings for many years and owned her own metaphysical store. As we started talking, I realized that we both had similar ways of reading the tarot cards – intuitively, rather than relying on set definitions. She was very encouraging to me as I spoke with her about my vision of my career in the future. I decided to get a reading with her. I really enjoyed the reading she gave me, but most of all, I felt new confidence in myself because I knew I could do (and was already doing) what she was doing. She didn’t know every detail about my life, so I didn’t have to know that about my clients either. She gave messages from Spirit Guides, and that’s what I do too. Rather than focusing on questions like, “Will I get a date next week,” her mission was to help people get in touch with the influences of their life, how they were creating their experience, and what they could do to move toward creating what they really desire. That’s what I do too!
The point is, by thinking I had to hold up to a ridiculous standard of perfection that I’d created and thought other people expected, I was limiting my personal growth. Really, I was using it as an excuse to not take a chance.
Although we might fool ourselves into believing that striving for perfection is a good thing, it’s actually a way to make us feel like failures. Instead of complimenting ourselves on our growth or the joy we’re feeling in each moment, we are constantly bringing ourselves down with the reminder that we’re not good enough. Nobody can thrive under that sort of scrutiny. And really, it’s probably just an excuse to keep us from taking a chance because we’re scared. If we tell ourselves we’re not perfect enough to do the career we want, we never have to face the fear of making a mistake or being rejected. If we tell ourselves someone we’re dating isn’t perfect enough because he/she doesn’t know our wishes without us telling them, maybe that’s just an excuse to push them away so we don’t have to feel vulnerable.
Let’s throw away the idea that perfection is a goal that we must strive to attain and instead recognize that we are already perfection in this moment. How we are and who we are right now is perfect. We can still strive for personal growth and have new desires, but each step of the way we are already beautiful, Divine perfection.
Lots of Love,
Melanie Jade 🙂
