Have you ever started a new job and wanted to bring your best to it but felt like you just didn’t know enough and were going to fail?
What about a time where you just started learning a skill like painting and felt scared to put the brush on the canvas?
There are so many things that we cannot be perfect at, and while this is commonly acknowledged, it seems like we go around still saying, “just try your best!”
I think it’s time to break up with that phrase because it continues to allow our inner perfectionist critic to beat us up when the result isn’t wonderful.
Bye bye, secret perfectionism and subconscious self-judgement
That critic reprimands us, “How could this be your best if it looks like that mess?! You clearly weren’t trying hard enough.” It’s a short step from there to “You are not good enough!”
Let go of always doing your best.
Instead of trying your best, let me introduce you to the much kinder, more human idea of “do your messt.“
Doing your messt means pre-assuming that what you try is going to be messy and that you’re still going to give it a good attempt.
To do your messt means you understand there will be failure and there will be broken eggs and time spent and multiple iterations before you get to a result that becomes what you want.
To do your messt automatically includes the idea of self-forgiveness for not being perfect.
If we need ANYTHING in this world, isn’t it a side order of forgiveness and acceptance to come with everything we do?
All I ever hope that you do, loves, is your messt.
And once in a great, great while, with effort and care and refinement, that will result in your very best.
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