Imperfection Is Your Expertise

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”

- Anna Quindlen

I’m part of Elizabethpw’s #18daystoLYT program (I’m kind of addicted to her whole “Live Your Truth” mantra, in honesty). At one point in the course, she talks about how the thing we’re still learning is the thing we are most expert in.

Wha…?

My imperfection is my source of expertise?

I need to chew on that a bit more – care to join me?

That thing I’m hiding behind, struggling with – that’s pulling me around from day-to-day… THAT is my expertise?

Hooboy… It makes so much sense, but it’s also pretty scary.

If you’ve been here more than a day, you’ve probably picked up on my notion that, given enough time, there is ALWAYS a way to make something “impossible” become very possible.

My faith, my willingness – maybe even penchant – to have faith that there is a way – has brought me to this place.

The paradox is that I’m a huge skeptic. I’m cynical, doubt-filled, and often come to a faith-filled position after a LOT of struggle. Because while I believe that enough time will always make a way, I’m not always convinced I, personally, have enough time to accomplish whatever needs accomplishing.

And yet, time and again, I’m taken aback by the comments people make about my positive attitude, patience, my faithfulness, and my willingness to endure and see things through to the end.

… Me?

…Really?

Boy, I feel like I’ve got a lot of people fooled – sometimes.

When a few people say it, it’s a rumor. When a lot of people say it it’s a conspiracy. When your trusted friends and colleagues say it, there’s probably more than a bit of truth to it.

So I’m looking at this faith-struggle I’ve got, and realize that, while I feel like I don’t have it deciphered, I’m a bit farther along on the journey than other people. My own lessons-learned are paving the way for those behind me. And as my friend often chides – as I point out the direction of the journey that’s still in front of me, I’m following right behind and learning myself as I go – just like everyone else (Thanks, Jen. You’re brilliant, as usual.).

The surprising thing is that this is a life-long lesson for me. As my friend and colleague Teresa Romain likes to point out, we often teach the thing we most need to learn. But at the same time, I struggle with recognizing that I’ve already come a long way, at least far enough to be able to teach in the first place.

The lesson? You may just surprise yourself at how awesome you already are.

Particularly as it relates to your greatest “imperfection”.

Seriously. If it wasn’t important to you in the first place, most of you wouldn’t give that “flaw” a second thought.

It simply isn’t a priority – until you decide to do something about it. Until you decide to master it.

Mastery requires a deep-level understanding of the issue at hand. You can’t master anything with surface knowledge.

You dig in, root around, and try to find causes, contributing factors, ways to ameliorate the dreaded thing and “solve” the problem.

Ah! Now it clicks. Now I see it. I’ve spent so much time working on my own faith, how it manifests, what it really means, that to some people I am a “master” of it.

Personally, I still see the very long road ahead of me (which I view as continued imperfection), and I forget about how far I’ve come.

Maybe you have that same issue, too?

In this #Trust30 Prompt by Ashley Ambirge, she asks:

“Think of a time when you didn’t think you were capable of doing something, but then surprised yourself.  How will you surprise yourself this week?”

We are already awesome. Even in our “imperfection” – which is a judgement and comparative statement that has no foundation in universal truth. We are perfectly poised in this perfect moment to be exactly where (and who) we are. That statement is always true. Circumstances may change, but it’s our judgments that strain the perfection of any moment in time.

And yes, I know it’s easier to say it than to believe it. Remember, I’m all about faith, so work with me here. One of my life-long areas of improvement has been my weight. I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read, plans I’ve studied (or “tried”), experts I’ve researched, and “stuff” I’ve done in the name of “trying to lose weight”. I know how chemicals in our food can disrupt our endocrine and immune systems, how our emotions can trigger eating disorders, what exercises will help me see results faster (they also hurt more!), and how to make home-made organic yogurt.

I “know” a CRAP TON about it. And yet, here I sit a good 100 pounds over what any reasonable person considers a “healthy” weight. Yes, there’s also a difference between knowing and doing, but that’s another topic for another day.

“Once you accept the fact that you’re not perfect, then you develop some confidence.”

- Rosalynn Carter

How will you choose to view your so-called imperfections now? I think of Cindy Crawford’s now famous mole, and how she changed the minds of the masses when she decided to embrace her perfection and stop judging it.

6 Ideas to help you see “Imperfection” as “Expertise”

1. Recognize that you’ve been “working on” this area for a while. Countless hours of on-the-job experience have been your teacher.
2. Applaud your determination to keep at it. You could have just resigned yourself to always being lousy in that area, yet you persist at overcoming.
3. Even Thomas Edison made over 50,000 experiments (he refused to call anything a failure) before he had a functional dry cell battery. 50,000 days of “experimenting” equates to 136 years – you’re probably nowhere near that level of persistence yet.
4. 10,000 hours of study is considered “expert” status. How many hours have you put in?
5. Recognize that your awareness is often more than most folks have. Anything beyond awareness (including study), counts you as an authority over at least some group of people.
6. Could it be that part of your life lesson is to teach what you most need to learn?