One of my favorite lyrics comes from a song titled: "Love Yourz" and the artist J. Cole says, "No such thing as a life that's better than yours."
Should you choose to listen to the song or read the lyrics, replace the words that make you uncomfortable or that you can't relate to with whatever word will make it relatable, but don't miss the meaning behind the message. Sometimes we spend way too much time missing the meaning behind the message because we can't see past our own discomfort with the way it is relayed to us.
We are all striving for something. That amazing career, the title, the "thing" that has meaning, the income that will sustain us, the passion, the purpose....sometimes what I think we are really striving for is unattainable because if things don't align the way we envision or come in the package we least expected, we lose hope. We strive for a perfect outcome that does not exist no matter how hard we try or even when we believe we did everything right. And we must stop this.
We miss the MEANING behind the moments. We lose focus when the waters are troubled and the detours take place. We don't know how to handle a pivot.
I had the the most beautiful conversation with a leader I admire a great deal and what she said I will share. What she said is, what you want is peace, not perfection. You want peace with the outcome, you want peace in your decisions, you want peace in your career. Because the reality is, perfection doesn't exist. Sorry, you will never get everything right.
You want to give your all, put your heart into it (whatever it is), do things with the right intent, right focus, right energy and trust that there is meaning in every single moment. The good, the bad and the downright incredibly ugly stuff too. Because if you look at your life in that way, you have peace with the process. You don't have an unrealistic view of your life versus the life of another. You know it won't go well all the time for you or for anyone else. You know things will happen. But you maintain your purpose and your focus because you have peace. Peace is direction. Peace is what you need to hold on to so that you can continue the race. You can't have peace when who you are and what you are doing aren't aligned.
So ask yourself, are you at PEACE with your direction right now or are you seeking unattainable perfection and trying to maintain unrealistic expectations of yourself.
Go be great (not perfect) just better.