When we tell people about The Movement of Imperfection, they are sometime confused. We realized this at our very first keynote speech when an esteemed doctor turned to us and said, “I find this whole imperfection thing liberating. I can make mistakes.” We were quite impressed until we thought about it later. “Dear God, Gene! What if he’s a brain surgeon?”
It’s not uncommon for people to confuse our fondness for imperfection as promotion for mediocrity.
We'll admit it. We don't always get along, though we certainly try our best to.
“So, let me guess this straight, you encourage your kids to make mistakes?”
That’s certainly not our intention at all. We always have and will continue to encourage our children to do the very best they can, but to accept that things might not always turn out “perfect.” Today’s guest blogger, Erica Goppold, did a great job of explaining the difference in her blog, The Well-Rounded Mom. Erica is a nursing student with previous degrees in education, volunteers for a wellness organization in her community, and is raising her school-aged children. She describes herself as physically ‘well-rounded…’ since a girl needs her outlets.” Hers are sweets and wine (Hello? Could we have a long lost sister out there?). Erica also happens to be a fan of The Movement of Imperfection (clearly we couldn’t miss an opportunity for shameless self-promotion), as she indicates in her blog below:
Imperfect by Erica Goppold
Lately, I have been inspired by the notion of imperfection. If we face it, nobody is perfect. Nobody gets everything right all of the time. While I will not accept mediocrity as my norm, I am totally ok with being imperfect. To clarify, I consider mediocrity to be tied to less than optimal effort, as opposed to imperfect where I do/did my best and made some mistakes along the way. By striving for ‘imperfection’ I still give my all, but can be resolved by the imperfect outcomes.
When I began my blog, my intention was to share the honest, not so pretty side of being a working mom, who admittedly overextends herself. It is usually not pretty and hardly ever perfect. Then I happened to stumble across an organization on facebook that supports the ‘imperfect’ movement. They can be found at http://www.shutupabout.com/. Their full moniker is “Shut up about your perfect kid,” as they were inspired by their less than perfect children. These women are 2 sisters who have children with psychological and Autism-spectrum disorders, and speak freely about how imperfect their lives are. However, being the motley crew they are, the website is directed to anybody who admits to being less than perfect.
To read more of this blog and other great works from Erica, visit http://well-roundedmom.blogspot.com/2012/04/imperfect.html?spref=fb.
Tell us how you feel about imperfection? Do you find it liberating?
Trying to be perfect contributes to depression and other woes. Imperfection is, indeed, liberating! I find it ironic that when we stop striving for perfection we’re far more likely to come close to it.