Perfectly Imperfect

By Alice Grist

Author of High Heeled Guide to Enlightenment (and soon to be sequel)

Check her out at Soul Cafe

Oh my gosh I am so imperfect it actually hurts. For some reason lately I have become acutely aware of my own imperfections. Maybe I’m being paranoid, supercritical, or maybe it’s just the weather. But trust me, this girl is not a goddess. This girl is flawed. And right now… this girl knows it!

Now I know you must be thinking… none of us are perfect. And yes, maybe I am feeling the pressure of my current place in life. I write books that straddle the worlds of spirituality and self-help, and so for some readers a degree of ‘perfection’ in their author might be a prerequisite. If that’s the case, then some of my readers have come to the wrong lady writer. My books are an example of me on a good day, living in my wisest shoes, but even whilst strutting around in perfect stilettos, I am all too aware of the potential for bunions that lays beneath the surface!

The honest truth is that I have difficulty living up to my own advice. I worry about whether this makes me more a hypocrite, or more human. I prefer the latter. For it’s my thought that we are all of us hacking it out in human bodies, in the hope, the purpose, the intention of getting just a few millimeters closer to some kind of spiritual perfection; perfect self esteem with a balanced and untroubled ego.

With this in mind I believe that what matters is not so much the end goal of perfection, but the fact that we recognize our imperfection, and the fact that day after day, failure after success, we aim to get a little less imperfect.

Some days I overreact, I anger, I frustrate, I linger on unhealthy thoughts too long, you all know the score, don’t play the innocent with me!  I write about not drinking and the next day awake with a hangover, don’t flutter your eyes lids, I know you may not write about it, but I’m sure you have groggily uttered the immortal words; ‘I am never drinking again’. We all suck at being perfect. So that’s a good enough place to start I reckon.

I am imperfect. But I am really working on it. So with this knowledge of my failings in mind, you could say that, I am at least perfectly aware of myself, I am conscious, and I am self possessed. As such I am better placed to start living more perfectly as and when I try! I am officially mindful, which is great, Buddha would approve. The only way is up! Once you realize and accept your imperfections, you are in a perfect place, you are on the road to recovery!

Bear your faults in mind and try to circumvent them. That is all any of us can do. Perfection is not a task we will complete in this one lifetime I assure you of that. So go easy on your sensitive soul. Yes Imperfection is a horrid little bug to bear, but as long as you know it’s there then you can pride yourself on knowing who you are. This is something that not many people can honestly say that they do know!

In your imperfection you are perfectly human, you are opening your mind to something better! Imperfection is real, it is solid, and it’s the new black. Go with it. Don’t wallow in it, wade through it in your fanciest, happiest and most comfortable shoes. Imperfection is this season, next season and the only way forward. Enjoy.