Intentional Living doesn’t equal “Perfection.”
Have you ever said “I want to live a good life!” but what you’re REALLY saying… is that you want to live a PERFECT life. I mean… who doesn’t want to live a perfect life? But pursuing perfection will make you miserable while you’re constantly striving towards an unattainable goal. Keep reading to find out why Intentional Living doesn’t equal Perfection.
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I used to feel like I had to work towards creating a PERFECT life. I wanted to be the PERFECT wife, the PERFECT mom. The business-owner that PERFECTLY had her shiz together. And the irony of this whole story is that I’m a Hot Mess Express. 🥵
I’m an ENFP and an Enneagram 7, which basically means I’m a Hot Mess with a side of Crazy. 🥳 I get easily excited, adore new ideas, and struggle with the follow-through of those big ideas. I hate strict schedules, and doing the same thing for too many days in a row makes me feel like I’m DYING inside.
So why was I so STUCK on this idea of attaining or creating “perfection”?
I thought I needed to “fix” myself.
But what I really needed was to work WITH myself and my personality. (Personality Hacking anyone?) This mindset-shift was LIFE CHANGING, my friend. Like, not even kidding! When I stopped trying to “fix myself,” and got curious, I started looking for new ways to accomplish the stuff that I needed to do every day… and my entire life changed for the better.
If you find yourself wishing that you were a different person, or more like that person who seems to “have it all together…” I want to encourage you to LEARN more about yourself! Look into Meyer’s Briggs or the Enneagram, and get acquainted with the amazing person you were made to be! You aren’t an accident or a mistake — you are a treasure. You were created for a reason, and every detail about you was carefully designed long before you were born.
I thought there was something “wrong” with me.
This is just a sign of how terrible my mindset used to be. Instead of seeing myself as a whole, complete, beloved child of God… I saw myself as a TOTAL failure. These days, I love to joke that I’m a Hot Mess…. But, I mean it in the best way possible. I’m someone who loves a good time and doesn’t give a crap about perfection. But I used to BELIEVE IT. I thought I was truly a screwed-up version of a human that needed a total overhaul to be a functioning adult.
This is a sign of a poor mindset (and self esteem!), and you don’t have to live like this! This often comes out in the ways you speak to/about yourself. “I’m broken…” or; “I’m just a failure…” If you’re nodding your head — you aren’t stuck here. You can view yourself in a totally different light. (I mean… God does, and He’s, like… Perfect.)
I thought that a Perfect Life would make me Happy.
OUCH. 😣 I’ve always been a very future-oriented person. I’m a big dreamer, and that means that I’ve always got my eyes in the sky, excitedly anticipating what next. And I let that keep me STUCK for SO long — I wished my way through high school, hoping for Mr. Right. Wished my way through the first few years of marriage, hoping for babies. I survived the early baby years by wishing for our new house.
But if you’re constantly looking for what’s next… You’ll miss what’s here RIGHT NOW. If you’re naturally future (or past) oriented, then it can be really hard to be present every day. These days, I’m really aware of my tendency towards future-oriented thinking. I know being a big dreamer is a gift! BUT. I’m also determined to work on being PRESENT each day, because I don’t want to miss a second of this gift called life.
I guess the whole point of this ENTIRE post is this:
When you let go of the idea that you have to live a perfect life (in an imperfect world), life will get infinitely better.
Because instead of fighting against your imperfections (or the world’s), you’ll learn to embrace them. You’ll learn how to work WITH yourself (and others!) better. You’ll learn to let go of the stuff you can’t control… and you might just uncover a more intentional, fulfilled life. In other words;
