Accepting the Gap
Posted on March 05, 2024 by Amy Luckey, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
Releasing perfectionism in the workplace and in our lives.
Perfectionism is a b*tch. It strangles us, drags us back, and pins us down. We know it. We hate it. We’re exhausted. Add the extra gut punch of the intense frustration and shame that come from knowing that we “just need to” release perfectionism’s stifling grip on our whole being. We’re laid flat before we even begin.
Reassurance from our partners, our colleagues and our supervisors that our work is good, even excellent, doesn’t land. No amount of external affirmation will untangle the knots inside. The untangling and rewiring is a process, a life-long practice. And, as with any meaningful transformation, is an internal job.
What those around us don’t see is our vision and the gap. The gap is the gulf between our creative compelling vision and what we are able to execute today. What looks from the outside as “simply” our insecurity and doubt, is often the gap.
Our power over perfectionism is rooted, in part, in our acceptance of the gap.
For now.
For today.
For this draft.
For this moment.
Allowing done to be better than perfect.
Letting the gap remain.
It’s in allowing ourselves to put into the world something less than what we know in our hearts is possible. Allowing our work, ourselves, to be perceived as less than the extraordinary vision that we hold in our minds. Trusting that we are whole and worthy. Trusting that with this imperfect step, we are moving in the direction of our vision, toward the contributions we aim to make in the world. Knowing that without taking it, we will either remain paralyzed under the weight of the unfulfilled vision or run ourselves into the ground chasing it.
