Power doesn’t come from Perfection

It's a throwback Thursday email. I found this writing as a journal entry from many years ago, and I don’t remember if it ever became an email or a blog on my old website. 

Regardless, I thought the wisdom was still applicable and hope you will, too. 

I made a video.

Actually, I made about 22, but that’s what it took to get my first video up on my website. I thought the best way for you to understand how passionate I feel about my new course would be for me to talk directly to you in a video. 

Great. A three-minute video. How hard could it be? 

(cue the laughter) 

Well, what I thought was a 30-minute project became many hours, which led to some interesting discoveries.

1. Ask for Help When Stuck.

Because I had “judged” that this was something straightforward and easy, I felt confident that I could figure it out on my own. When I ended up frustrated over a portion of the process, I went into beating myself up for not getting it easily. I felt embarrassed. My head said, “I suck.”  Instead of seeing that I lacked knowledge about the process, I made it about my self-worth. How often do we do that to ourselves? I see this often with my clients, and I caught myself doing it. We can easily slip into taking something outside of us and internalizing it to the point of holding us back. So, I asked someone to help me, and I was back in the flow within minutes. I wish I had done it sooner. 

2. It’s going to take more than one attempt.

You can’t give up. Just when I thought I had expressed myself sincerely and had a good take, I would watch the video defeated because the wind blew so hard halfway through that the camera shook, and the sound was muffled. Or once, I went through a whole take only to realize I didn’t hit record. And then there was the time I was totally off-center. Each mistake led to learning.  

3. AND it’s not going to be perfect. 
Truth is, I was afraid of putting myself out there to be judged. I was worried that if I didn’t get this video just right, you wouldn’t like me or trust me or want to know more about my program. I realized that I was hanging all of my hopes and success on this one little video. In that place of fear, we lose our power. I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that POWERdoesn’t come from perfection. My power was in connecting back to the intention of the video and allowing my passion and emotion to radiate through me so that I could speak from my heart without getting every word exactly right. Authenticity beats perfection.

What part of this resonates the most? Send me a DM and let me know. 

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