Invite Greatness #1 - Embracing Imperfection Is the Key to Feeling Free

Invite Greatness is a series on identifying the things that are holding you back, and learning to turn them into allies instead of enemies. In this episode we look at imperfection, and how giving yourself the space to be imperfect creates the freedom to thrive just by being yourself.

Watch this highly energized six minute video by clicking below!

Full Transcript Below:

Welcome to the first episode of Invite Greatness, where we take something that may be holding you back and instead of seeing it as an obstacle, we invite it in and allow it to become the very tool we use to evolve into a greater version of ourselves.

Todays topic is going to be about inviting in imperfection. I've been experiencing a lot of writer's block lately. I'm putting stuff out and, even in rough draft form, I just feel like it's not good enough. And that's just a product of internal dialogue. You don't just plant a seed and it instantly blooms into a full blown plant. You plant something, it takes a little time to gestate, it becomes more — there's a momentum to the process. And if you don't allow that momentum you snuff it out before life can even take root. And that's how it sometimes feels in the creative process.

So what I'm doing in this video is I'm going to invite in imperfection. I'm going to embrace the roughness of the process. The soil that's all muddy. The bloodiness of the birth process when it comes to human creation. There's that icky stuff, that if you try to create without it, you will find that you can't. Because there's something necessary about it that allows for...

I guess I don't know why it has to be that way, it just is that way. And I don't have to know why it is that way because this is about inviting in imperfection. It's not about having all the answers.

If I'm trying to write from this place where I have all the answers. If I'm trying to create a video where I have all the answers. Then it's like I'm saying I have to know everything before I know anything. And that's counterproductive.

Here's the invitation process. I've used this before with fear, with loneliness, with rejection. I wrote a post on New Year's day about how I went to New Year's Eve alone because my friends hadn't shown up yet. And instead of trying to avoid embarrassment I invited embarrassment in, and had this transformative, awesome experience where we hung out and made out all night. And I didn't even miss my friends. And when my friends showed up it was just "the more the merrier."

The invitation process is that you take imperfection (or whatever it is) and look at it like it's a person. Imperfection is like this entity that you can reach out to and connect with as if it were a consultant. And you can consult with imperfection and understand whatever it is you may be misinterpreting. Because there's so many things we don't know and if you can call in a consultant that does know, it shaves years off your learning curve. It could save you from making mistakes that costs tens of thousands of dollars.

The idea is not to have to know everything, but to allow in the energy of whatever is holding you back. So I feel like I'm being held back by perfectionism or imperfection so I'm going to invite it in and we'll see what happens.

(I take a second to meditate and focus on letting in the energy of imperfection, then I instantly make a face like I'm spitting something out that tastes bad and start laughing.)

So that's what it feels like when I invite imperfection in. It was this instant of, "Ewww, this things I've labeled as bad is now all up in me." And I'm just like, "Eww, get off me!"

What you'll find — I noticed this most when I invited in fear. When I invited in fear I feel incredibly stable. Like nothing can shake me. When you're afraid you're literally shaking sometimes. So when I invited fear in and I felt this stability and this unshake-ability, it really was a counterintuitve experience. When what is on the outside that appears to be a conflict is now on the inside, it becomes an ally. And once it's an ally, you can really look at things more objectively. Because you're no longer trying to avoid being afraid. You're no longer trying to avoid being imperfect. You're no longer trying to avoid being embarrassed. So you can actually choose who you want to be instead of choosing not to be that.

So, yeah, inviting in imperfection. (I invite it in and make another "yuck" face.

Imperfection is beautiful. We can all relate to not being perfect. We can all relate to putting something out there that's a little rough around the edges. Or to just being a little rough around the edges.

When somebody says, "Imperfect is good. Imperfect is fine." They not only carve that space out for themselves, but they carve it out for all of us. We begin to embrace more of who we really are. And perhaps hold ourselves less to Hollywood or TV standards, where everything appears to be perfect. And we take that in and internalize it. Ever since we were growing up, we internalized this idea of perfection that plays out in other arenas but seems sometimes hard to achieve in our own lives.

This is just the first episode in this series of trying to finding the things that are holding us back and addressing them, and playing with them, and seeing what occurs.

(I snap my fingers and break out into dancing.)

Once I invite in imperfection I want to dance, I want to be free, I want to create, I want to explore. It's like the cat is away and the mouse will play. Because imperfection is no longer something I can't be. It's like I have a license to be imperfect! So I have a license to be myself! I have a license to live life with zest! And to just pour myself out there!

And that's incredibly empowering. And I think we all have access to this power. It's right there on the other side of what's holding us back. So if we can identify whatever's holding us back and invite it in, great things can happen!

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