 photo by ArtsieAspie |
One of the main reasons we hold ourselves back from taking action is our need to be perfect.
We want everything we do to be great AND we want everyone around us to think we are great too.
Often times if even the smallest thought exists that others aren’t going to see us (and everything we do) as great we don’t take action.
Most of the time this isn’t a conscious choice. We just don’t take the action we want to take and just get busy with something else.
I was recently working with “Rachel” on this issue. We did some great tapping on tuning into some of the reasons why she needed everything to be perfect before taking action.
About 45 minutes after our session I received this email:
I did some more tapping after our session, which brought me to a lightbulb moment – I seem to have believed, for God knows how long, that in order for me to be “good enough”, everything I do has to be impressive. That is an impossible standard, of course, but one that quite insidious in my daily thoughts…
So, I now give myself permission to be unimpressive, to make unimpressive art, to have unimpressive ideas and opinions, to have unimpressive dreams and goals, to have an unimpressive plan for the summer, to read unimpressive books… you get the idea.
What a relief! With impressive out of the way it has created real room to breathe.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. It is amazing the space we can create for ourselves when we give ourselves permission to be unimpressive!
Take a deep breath and tap on this:
I give myself permission to be unimpressive…I give myself permission to make unimpressive art…I give myself permission to have unimpressive ideas and opinions…I give myself permission to have unimpressive dreams and goals…I give myself permission to read unimpressive books…I give myself permission to [insert your own ideas].
Take another deep breath.
How does that feel? Let me know down in the comment section. I would also love to hear the things you inserted for yourself.
If you would like guidance on how you can use tapping for issues like this one in just a few minutes every day, please check out the Ruach Center.
I went through this sequence and afterwards I found myself breathing a very deep sigh of relief. Thank you!
I absolutely LOVE this post! Whew! now it is much easier to just be myself! How absolutely freeing! Thank you.
I too had a yawn and sigh, after this, what then came up was the thought ‘ but I want to be impressive’ – after that, ‘well that’s fine, just be impressive to yourself – others can join in if they want, but it’s you that really matters’. Thank you. Love Amer xx
this released a lot for me Thanks Gene. and in the process just as you intimated it would , it brought up a clarity on what I DID need to tap on , and that helped me clarify about an issue I was battling with right now.
Thanks, as always, for the road map : )
I have recently thought about my motives behind everything I do. Part of my perfectionism might be that I’m only happy when I have everything going for me, when I’m doing everything God wants me to do. Or else I’ll be missing out. Of course that is totally irrational! Life is not perfect and you got to let life go sometimes to feel the love. Make mistakes and be proud of it sometimes; God sent us here to learn not demoralize are already imperfect selves! Thanks for this reminder Gene!
A powerful too that gave me the ability to see how much this compulsion ran my life. Thanks, many times.