The word PERFECT. What does that bring up for you when you hear it? Does it make you want to push it away? Do you imagine something beautiful, or done just so?Maybe it makes you get antsy and anxious inside. My immediate reaction to the word is; it doesn’t exist. I don’t aspire for perfection, nor do I want it for my children…YET it has plagued me.It has been a part of my thinking for a very long time. No one ever told me I had to be perfect in any way.Actually, I think they might have even told me the opposite.Yet I received a lot of messaging about it growing up.The better the grades, the more A’s; the greater the reward and recognition. The better I performed or did anything really well, the chance of being made fun on by my peers, was much less. The better I looked, the more positive reinforcement I got. The more you can do anything well (aka PERFECT) the better off you are. This messaging mixed with my genetic pre-disposition, let me to a crippling place. A place where doing things got hard…the big things? Even harder and impossible at times. Today I’m diving into my own experience with perfectionist thinking. If you have experienced some of the same, I hope that by listening you might feel less alone, inspired to dig in and maybe learn more about it. Maybe you could start to practice new thoughts and behaviors, and go about your way on a more authentic path of ease and connection.