Last Updated on August 27, 2020 by Shane Corbitt
If you have any contact with social media, you will have noticed how everyone is striving to be perfect. Suddenly you can’t post a selfie without at least one filter or go out for dinner without showing your curated plate of food. Even your dog has to look perfect.
What if you just decided to take a step away from all the competition, all that clamoring for likes and hearts? What if you chose merely to enjoy your life without sharing it with the world? Here’s how you can reclaim your life and be happier.
1. Stop judging
You can decide right now to stop analyzing other people, looking for what’s wrong with their face or their body or their life choices. Refocus your attitude, so you stop seeing a difference as a flaw but as merely something that makes that person unique.
Just let go of the urge to criticize others, and you’ll notice a flow-on effect on how you see yourself.
2. Accept your imperfection
Wanting to be the best version of you isn’t the same as being a perfectionist. A perfectionist is never happy with who they are, how they look, or how they’re doing. Being your best means you work hard, you try, and you don’t give up. But it doesn’t mean you blame yourself when things aren’t perfect, and you don’t take failure personally.
3. Relax and enjoy the process
Perfectionists tend to trip over every little detail and allow imperfections to spoil their lives. When you embrace imperfection as a natural part of life, it frees you up to enjoy the ride.
Obstacles become challenges that make life more enjoyable. You can slow down and notice all the good things there are in your life.
4. Adopt imperfection as a way of life
Once you make peace with imperfection, you can be a lot more objective about life. Your perspectives change, and what once seemed overwhelmingly important suddenly doesn’t matter so much. All experiences become just another aspect of a life lived richly, that build the person you are continually becoming.
Imperfection stops being something to avoid at all costs. Think about it like this: perfection implies stasis, something you achieve and have to tend. It’s fragile and vulnerable. It puts an end to growth. And then what? You don’t want to stop learning and growing and developing, do you? Embracing imperfection means there’s always an opportunity to learn and grow and become a better person.
