Why We Need Less Perfection and More Purpose

I remember how much I loved having an organized apartment before my first baby girl was born. How everything had it's rightful place, and if it was moved just an inch I would notice.  It had to be just perfect.  Then she came along, and I realized something, why we need less perfection and more purpose.

Purpose leaves us full. Perfection leaves us empty.

The standard that perfection holds over us is impossible. It is this fight to do something or be something that we can truly never achieve and yet we go after it in hopes that one day, we will finally meet it; we will finally be perfect. And usually somewhere in there, we believe that to be perfect is to be loved or worthy or enough.

But the more we strive for perfection, the more empty we feel. Because it is draining to pursue a standard, that is impossible to reach. And this is exactly why we need to do more purpose.

The question isn't always, "what am I good at?" or "what am I perfect at?" but rather, "what makes me feel alive?" Purpose is that unshakeable knowing of what you were made to do, what you love to do and what you can uniquely give away to the world. There is meaning in every season of your life.

It can be easy to resort to obligation and duty and to-do lists, but there is something about stepping back and asking ourselves why we do the things we do. It is powerful to stand back and see the things you do to know the whether we are feeling this outer expectation of, "I need to do this to be okay," or from this inner expectation of, "this is important to me."

There will always be things we have to do and there will always be commitments we have made. But learning how to see those more filled with purpose than perfection is a perspective shift that will give you more life and make you feel more full.

You are deserving of a life that is filled to the overflow with goodness, with meaning, with intention.

You are worthy of waking up to a day that feels like a deep breath of fresh air.

You are made for uncontainable purpose.