{"id":307,"date":"2015-03-23T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kristinaevonne.com\/?p=307"},"modified":"2015-03-23T00:41:19","modified_gmt":"2015-03-23T06:41:19","slug":"how-to-not-be-perfect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kristinaevonne.com\/how-to-not-be-perfect\/","title":{"rendered":"How to not be perfect"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In high school, I was involved in orchestra. There was a phrase that was drilled into our heads on a daily basis:<\/p>\n

Perfection is our goal. Excellence will be tolerated.<\/h3>\n

It seems fine in practice, but I didn\u2019t realize the damaging effects until about a decade later.<\/p>\n

I teach violin lessons to a lady who grew up in this same orchestra program. She is a talented violinist, and dedicated to her skill. She is never satisfied with her progress, though. She\u2019ll spend weeks working over sections of a piece. Despite her obvious improvement and near mastery of the section, she still beats herself up over it because it isn\u2019t perfect<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Perfect<\/strong>. Such a dirty word.<\/p>\n

The search for perfection is a funny one. It\u2019s a noble cause, I suppose. I mean, who doesn\u2019t want to be perfect? But what about the damage caused by the acceptance of nothing less than perfection?<\/p>\n

My student is a great\u00a0example of this. Instead of embracing her weak spots and working them through, she beats herself up and puts up a mental barricade preventing any improvement whatsoever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that darn word \u201ccan\u2019t\u201d\u2026 I can\u2019t<\/em> get this section, she tells me. I can\u2019t<\/em> play it right. I can\u2019t play it up to speed.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t, I can\u2019t, I can\u2019t\u2026<\/p>\n

Henry Ford said: \u201cWhether you can or you can\u2019t, you\u2019re right.\u201d<\/h2>\n

What if my student would acknowledge\u00a0what she can<\/strong><\/em> do? What if she had an ego-less honest chat\u00a0with herself? Can you imagine the improvement by acknowledging her\u00a0true weakness instead of her\u00a0perceived weakness?<\/p>\n

Can you image if you did the same?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Excellence should not be tolerated<\/em>. Excellence should be the goal. On the flip side, We should never settle for mediocrity. We should always strive to become better versions of ourselves. (That’s a post for another day…)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I propose a new mantra. None of this \u201cperfection is our goal\u201d crap. No. We’re better than that. We should seek excellence and accept the perfection that comes as a product of a healthy relationship with ourselves.<\/p>\n

Excellence is our goal. Perfection will be tolerated.<\/p>\n

\"excellence\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a guest post. In high school, I was involved in orchestra. There was a phrase that was drilled into our heads on a daily basis: Perfection is our goal. Excellence will be tolerated. It seems fine in practice, but I didn\u2019t realize the damaging effects until about a decade later. I teach violin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,112],"tags":[125,128,126,129,127,124,123],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to not be perfect<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/kristinaevonne.com\/how-to-not-be-perfect\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to not be perfect\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a guest post. In high school, I was involved in orchestra. 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