You know those quirky, sometimes frustrating and shameful fragments and parts of you that make you unique and different?  

Those pieces that frustrate you and cause you to feel like you’re different .. the wonky shit you’re always anxious will cause people to reject you, if you don’t keep them neatly tucked away?

If you’re like me, it was a long time ago when you started learning that you had to hide who you really were if you were going to be accepted by others.  You needed to start taking on what other people thought you should do  so that you could be seen as successful.  As acceptable.  As loveable.   

You started to push that little voice inside you to the back of the bus, and drowned it out with everyone else’s voices telling you how to act, who to listen to, and who you supposed to be.  You learned to follow other people’s rules, or suffer rejection and ridicule.  And at some point .. that little voice inside you got thrown off your bus completely.

Most people spend their whole lives trying to hide, fix and compensate for who they really are.  Every one of us picked up a whole bunch of unfair and damaging beliefs early in life.  

For you, maybe it was that you weren’t smart enough because someone bullied you.  Maybe something happened to make you think your body wasn’t how it should be, and that you should try to hide it.  

It could have been something so innocent as a passing comment someone made to you, about you .. and all it took was that tiny little moment to cut you open like a knife, causing a scar that would define how you would see yourself going forward.

Everyone goes through these defining, painful and unfair experiences.  Moving through life, it’s these invisible forces that have been pushing you into being something and acting like someone you never felt comfortable with.

You allowed what others thought to overshadow who you really are.

The world of marketing and selling things gladly joined in, relentlessly telling you that you’re somehow “less than” .. broken .. in need of repair .. and that they had the magical solution.

Well my friend, if any of this sounds familiar, you’re definitely in the right place.

Because the days of you pretending to be perfect .. acting like everything’s fine .. trying to convince others you’ve got it all together .. those days are about to come to an end.

One of life’s great paradoxes is that the true path to greatness lies first in recognizing yourself as unperfect, and then leaning into it as your unfair advantage.

Unperfect?

Yeah.  Not imperfect.  No, you’re fucking UNPERFECT and you’re AWESOME.

You’re not broken, or less than anything than extraordinary.

Being unperfect means owning who you really are, and finally embracing your unique self as the amazing gift it truly is — regardless of what the world has convinced you.

I know.  It doesn’t make any sense.  But in this moment, you know it’s true — it’s just really terrifying.

Need some evidence?

Think of the human beings in your life that you cherish and respect most – that inspire you, and give you the courage to make tough decisions and take steps into the unknown. 

Perhaps it’s your BFF that you’ve known forever that has overcome so much, and yet always been there for you.  Maybe it’s your spouse whose held your hand as you walked through the coals of hell, or perhaps you have the benefit of having a coach or mentor in your life that has been a guiding light for steps along your journey.

They’re very likely the ones that have leaned into what makes them different and unique, rather than trying to hide them away from the world.  And it’s that courage and willingness to be real and authentic that draws you to them, and feeling like you can trust them to cast a light along your path.

The courage to be vulnerable and stand in front of the world naked, without the armour and masks you’ve accumulated over the years .. well that’s some scary shit right there.

But here’s the thing – when you finally accept your unperfection, you release yourself from the chains of judgement and trying to live up to other people’s expectations and needs.  You present yourself as a full human being, one that embraces your quirkiness and uniqueness in a way that inspires and empowers both yourself and others.  You being making choices based on what makes you happy, instead of trying to please others.

You inspire and give the courage to others to start to open up their true selves, and start to heal some of the lifelong wounds and upsets that have kept them in the dark, away from really feeling and loving their life.

You’re unperfect, and you’re extraordinary.  

If you’re willing to accept this truth, that’s all I’m asking from you.  I hope that you’ll find something here that speaks to you, that helps you, and most importantly .. that inspires you to embrace and celebrate the fact you’re unperfect, and that’s what makes life truly worth living.