To err is human. Are you holding yourself to an inhuman standard? Do you expect yourself to be the best at everything? Are you overly critical of yourself and avoid anything that could lead to you making a mistake? This very idea of expecting perfection from yourself could undermine your success in health and fitness as well as in life.
Let me tell you a story about a boy
This boy places high importance on feeling good, feeling accepted and feeling successsful.
In sports, he would give it a year and quit. Art projects would be ripped up and thrown away. If he lost a board-game, look out. If he saw that any new experience had the possibility of failure, he wouldn’t even give it a chance.
What would you tell this boy? How can a boy expect to be the best at everything he tries? He’s just a boy, right? He's still in the process of learning.
And yet he's too close to the feelings he's having. The feelings of failure, and embarrassment, when he's not immediately good at something new he's tried.
But how can he get
good...when he won't keep trying?
That boy is my son.
And He's the reason I'm writing this.
Perfectionism is the disguise of insecurity
Life is for learning. You have a choice to try and possibly… likely, make huge mistakes, and learn until you succeed,
or never try and never succeed.
If you are the type that expects yourself to pick up a skill in the first few minutes, all you will see is flaws instead of congratulating yourself for the progress that you made. You won’t see it out to the end because you are afraid of failing.
Perfectionism is just a disguise of the fear of NOT being good enough. Perfectionism is just a way to cover up your insecurities. You must learn to forgive yourself for your mistakes and understand that while there is no such thing as perfect, excellence can be achieved.
How? Never give up. Get back up and keep improving. Accept that you might not be the greatest in the beginning. You might still be learning a day, week, month, or even a year from now.
Sure, no one likes to be the “newbie”. It’s uncomfortable not being good at something but don’t let that stop you from trying! Accepting that imperfection is inevitable gives you the freedom to improve your performance. An all or nothing approach usually leaves you with a lot of nothings.
How do you see those who have overcome obstacles?
Look around you and see others that are doing their best but making mistakes along the way. How do you see them? Are they failures, or successes?
Even the experts started at the bottom. Muhammed Ali didn’t start out stinging like a bee. He was at the gym every day, giving his all, and making mistakes. But he came back the next day, and the next day, until he was The Great Muhammad Ali.
Let’s carry this over to fitness and nutrition. This is a major hurdle for many gym members and nutrition clients. Change is a big aspect when it comes to improving our fitness. It can be challenging to create new habits.
Changing our eating habits is hard but not impossible. If you make a mistake and eat a donut, all is not lost. Don’t give up and eat the entire dozen! Learn from your mistake and avoid the break room.
Learning new ways to exercise is hard but not impossible. You might feel weird learning new ways to move your body and maybe a little off balance, but your body is an amazingly adaptable creation. If you consistently train your body to move a certain way, your muscles will remember how! It’s called muscle memory, but it won’t happen without repetition. That’s how all things are learned, through repetition. Your muscles know that. Now it’s time for you to accept it!
You Can Reach Your Goals!
The point is…you can be great. You will succeed if you
persist
no matter how many mistakes you make. But you won’t unless you learn to stop thinking that you have to be perfect. To err is human.
You are human…. I hope.
True perfection is learning to accept your flaws and continuing to improve until you are excellent…but still not perfect.
