I’ve come across many views and philosophies on ‘perfect‘ and ‘perfection‘: from “strive for perfection” to “you are perfectly imperfect” to “there is no such thing as perfect or perfection” and everything in between and more.
During many walks along the shoreline or while paddling I’ve observed Great blue herons standing so still and quiet in the water or on a raft of kelp in their stealth hunting mode, seemingly waiting for that ‘perfect’ moment to launch its attack. A year ago I thought that would be a good message for Messages from the Tide Pool, titled something like, well, “Waiting for the Perfect Moment”. But I was not moved to write about it until now. Hmmm.
On Sunday I enjoyed walking with my dear friend who I had not seen for way too long. We spoke about choices, choosing to go for a walk in the sunshine with each other instead of staying home to work on our businesses, and which choice would impart a beautiful long term memory; I spoke of feeling ‘behind‘ in all the e-mails and my coaching and leadership audios, and feeling stalled in my business because it was still small and had not progressed since I launched my business.
Twenty-four hours later, I found myself finally writing on this topic of ‘the perfect moment‘. Why? Because of my time with my friend and what we talked about, and I had just listened to the leadership audio I was ‘behind in’, and heard the message I needed to hear and to share with my friend, and perhaps you. “Make friends with playing a small game first. Love where you are at today. Find five reasons why where you are at right now is ‘perfect’ for your life and find five reasons why where you want to be will be ‘perfect’ when you get there”.
Had I written this a year ago, it would have been different. Had I listened to the audio a month ago, it would have landed differently. All the beautiful and essential ingredients seemed to line up for me over those two days, exactly when I needed them to write this piece. Let go of the labels ‘perfect’ and ‘perfection’; don’t let them overshadow the inner whisper that lets us know “now” is the time, “this” is the choice.
If we are still and quiet like the Great blue heron, we will hear that inner whisper, and there will be no question if we are acting too soon or delaying for too long, if we are making the ‘right’ or ‘perfect’ choice. Connect with that inner whisper, trust the timing of things, and welcome things to happen when they are truly meant to happen for us.
