Perfection Is Boring

Well, we all make mistakes. One of my most recent, spectacularly silly examples was that I ignored my screaming elbow. As in, pain in my right elbow every time I am on the computer – and especially while I am editing my doodles in Photoshop. Watch out for over-editing your doodles. I’m jus’ sayin.’
Also, watch out for the seduction of “getting stuff done” to the point of ignoring your body. Okay, maybe better just to go straight to listening to your body.
I know, some of you who are my clients are probably saying something like “What the F@!#, Chris?! Aren’t you like, always telling us to listen to the wisdom of our bodies? I want my freakin’ session fees back!”
Well, I’m making it up to you by clearly and colorfully illustrating how ignoring the messages of your body leads to no good! I’m suffering for you, folks! (No, not really. I’m suffering because I ignored my elbow, which started saying “ow” very softly several months ago. I ignored it and forced it to gradually kick the message up to: “HELLO?! OUCH!! Ouchey ouch-ness!! And while I have your attention, stop being such an anal-retentive perfectionist on Photoshop editing your sweet doodles to death and totally getting away from the whole POINT of the doodles, lady!”
Yeah, I’m definitely suffering because of THAT, not because I am bravely making myself into a clear example of what you all SHOULDN’T do. (Though if you’re smart you’ll take advantage of that option for yourselves too).
So here I am, typing with a wrist brace on, with an ouch-ey elbow. Geez.
The very good news is that though my elbow had to really hurt, it DID get my attention. And it really helped me reorient to my true intention with these inspirational cartoons -these fun images and words that have become such a huge, wonderful part of my life.
See, on Friday I actually signed on with Balboa Press to have their expert help as I self-publish 2 inspirational coloring books. Which is AWESOME! Yet over the last months, as I was coming up to that moment of signing on, I gradually and almost imperceptibly got more perfectionistic. Part of me got more uptight as it dawned on me that I would be sharing the doodles with so many people. My self-critical inner monster has gradually been overtaking my body! (Except for my elbow, which is bravely fighting off the attack in order to try and knock some sense back into me.)
I started getting caught up in “how it looks.” That fear is a pretty common one, if you’re, say, human and living in western civilization. I was forgetting the sweet reasons why I AM creating these doodles, and how much I believe in what they offer to you all. Well, and to me of course – especially if I stay true to the inspiration that is birthing them.
These drawings are accessible and inviting because they are not perfect. Their simpleness and innocence deliver their messages purely. No fancy wording, and no intimidating, high-skill rendering of images. We can embrace these simple, squishy figures and their unsophisticated matter-of-factness. We can see they have nothing to hide. They just want us to hug them and spend time with them, and for heaven’s sake get the message already that we are awesome. We are. And the doodles are. And nobody has to try. We can color outside the lines, make the figures purple or plaid if we want to, or we can even not color at all and just let these sweet little angels BE in our presence. These doodles have so much going on, and so much to offer in terms of upliftment and healing – whole bunches of which I’ll save for another blog. But still, these doodles – and I – and you – totally derail our original intentions, inspirations and life force when we try to get too perfect!
When I was 12, Jackie Valdez, local tarot, psychic and spiritual teacher extraordinaire, told me “perfection is boring.” That got my attention, since at twelve I had already been seriously uptight and self-critical for years. Jackie went on to say that being perfect or getting it “perfect” implied that there was some end-goal, and that there is some consensus about what this “perfect” state looked like. She said that basically means that when you get to perfect you are done – there is nothing else to strive for. Perfect is a totally static place. When I realized she was right, and that perfection ultimately IS boring, well, that felt good. I could relax a little. Perfection is boring – that was all the medicine I needed just then. But Jackie had more to say. And just in case there is juju in this second part for you all, Jackie also said that instead of perfection, excellence is a much more active, helpful idea to reach for. The idea or feeling of excellence is something you can always lean towards. There’s life force in that. Perfection, on the other hand, is basically boring and a dead end.
So my elbow, in a very round-about way, told me to stop nitpicking, have more fun, relax, trust the process, trust the muses that are delivering the doodles to me, and for God’s sake stop spending so much time on the computer! So I made an intentionally imperfect doodle for this week! And this blog is another experiment in not taking things so seriously. I had fun lightening up. And I am winking at my friend Sandy who, after my last post that included the story of “Badass Kisser,” told me it was so refreshing to see me step out my usual posts that are usually so “peace and love, man.” Thanks Sandy. You always show up in time to give me a gentle kick in the butt, heart, or in this case add additional oomph to my elbow!
So, my friends. Is there anywhere YOU can drop some perfectionism? Or, better yet, any body part or niggling feeling that’s been asking you out for coffee for a while? I bet there is. It doesn’t have to be coffee. Sit on your meditation cushion. Write in your journal. Talk out loud to yourself in the mirror. Make some art. Find some way to give your own intuition and knowing some air time. Me and my elbow really recommend it.

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