Perfectly Imperfect
Perfectly Imperfect
When we are clearing our clutter, we must accept that in the past, present and future, we have been – and still are – perfectly imperfect.
To succeed on our Journey, we must accept ourselves for who we are, warts and all. The mistakes we’ve made, the decisions we made that turned out to be not so great, and the time, energy, effort, and money we have used in the past with good intention but poor execution.
We must accept that it’s OK to be our perfectly imperfect selves, living the most wonderfully unique life that continues to be perfectly imperfect, which enables us to continue being the most wonderfully unique person on this planet. People will continue to love us just the way we are.
In fact, you NEED to be perfectly imperfect to succeed on your Clutter Clearing Journey.
Here are 7 reasons why it’s important to be perfectly imperfect.
1. Perfection doesn’t Exist
What’s perfect to you is not perfect to someone else (like the 3-legged dog in the picture above). If you’re striving for perfection, or the perfect decision for the things in your clutter, you’ll get stuck in the Clutter Keeping Cycle and you will never clear your clutter. You need to focus on making balanced, realistic decisions about the things in your clutter by accepting that you made perfectly imperfect decisions in the past that led you to where you are now. You need to accept you can’t control the past – you can only control your present.
Remember: The ‘perfect’ decision in the present is almost certainly not the same as the ‘perfect’ decision in the past or the ‘perfect’ decision you might make in the future. The only thing you can control are the decisions you make in the present.
As Stephen Hawking is quoted as saying: ‘One of the basic rules of the universe is that nothing is perfect. Perfection simply doesn’t exist… without imperfection, neither you nor I would exist’.
2. It’s the Only Way You Learn
You only learn when you make mistakes. You only make mistakes when you are perfectly imperfect. Therefore, you actually NEED to be perfectly imperfect to learn how to clear your clutter. If you insist on trying to be perfect, which we’ve already established doesn’t exist, you either won’t succeed on your Journey and you’ll stay trapped in your Clutter Keeping Cycle, or you’ll give up because it will take you hours to make a single decision. Which you’re welcome to do by the way – but know that striving for perfection means you’ll give up (again).
3. It Saves Time
When you work on your clutter, doing your Clutter Clearing Sessions, you will get through more clutter and clear it faster if you accept that some decisions you make in the present will turn out (in the future) to be perfectly imperfect – and that’s OK.
When people get frustrated that their Journey is taking what they consider to be ‘too long’, I know that there are 4 main reasons why that is. They are not in a routine of doing the doing, they are not maintaining the areas they clear, they’re continuing to accumulate things that they don’t need or use, or they’re not consistently using their decision-making tools to make balanced realistic decisions quicker. Instead, they are still spending too long trying to make the perfect decision during their Clutter Clearing Sessions, which means they’re not letting go of much clutter during each session.
The more you accept that you are and have been perfectly imperfect, the more you make balanced realistic decisions based on your Best Life, the more you will let go of in a session, the quicker you will clear your clutter and complete your Journey.
4. Perfection is Subjective
What you consider perfect is not what someone else considers perfect. Ask yourself – are you striving for your idea of perfection or what you think someone else considers perfect in an attempt to get their approval or acceptance?
Most of us who struggle with clutter also struggle with people pleasing, protecting our boundaries and unsupportive friends and family. When other people tell us we ‘should’ just get rid of our clutter, or that we ‘should’ have an immaculate, zen like home, they are using their definition of perfection, not ours. Use your worksheet 7’s to define how your perfectly imperfect home will be.
5. Perfection Won’t Make You Happy
Constantly trying to achieve perfection – which doesn’t exist and is subjective – will make you feel constantly inadequate and like a failure. You’re never going to feel like you’re doing ‘enough’ or that you’re ‘good enough’. Even when you achieve success, you’ll struggle to accept it. You’ll look for the flaws in what you’ve done and self-criticise, which sets you off on a quest for greater perfection.
Whatever you do, achieve, or succeed at is never enough. You never allow yourself to be happy and content, telling people that you know nothing is perfect ‘but……’ And just in case you still believe that perfectly imperfect isn’t ‘good enough’, you should know that research has shown that striving for perfection is linked to anxiety, depression, high blood pressure and early death – not so perfect a life…
6. Bad Days and Tough Weeks
Unless you let go of this idea that you can Clear your Clutter perfectly and start to accept that it’s actually important to be perfectly imperfect to succeed, you won’t get through the bad days and tough weeks that everyone has on their Journey. You’ll give up on the first bad day because in your eyes that’s not doing your Journey ‘perfectly’.
7. Better Relationships
When you accept you need to be perfectly imperfect to succeed on your Journey, you’ll improve your relationships with other people. They’ll see that you are more relaxed in yourself, more open to imperfection, less critical and more accepting of yourself and others. Put simply – they’ll feel more comfortable being around you because you’ll be able to accept that they are perfectly imperfect too.
When you stop trying to live up to your unattainable expectation of being perfect – both with your Clutter Clearing and in life in general – you’ll clear your clutter more easily, complete your Journey quicker, and you’ll have more time and energy to live your Best Life.
You can clear your clutter fast, or you can clear your clutter forever, but you can’t clear your clutter forever, fast.
To find out how Clare can help you clear your clutter Forever, without the need for an expensive home visit, click here now: https://www.clutterclearing.net/clares-help-centre/
