{"id":7393,"date":"2017-06-01T12:23:08","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T19:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeandhealth.wordifysites.com\/?p=7393"},"modified":"2017-06-01T15:29:13","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T22:29:13","slug":"perfection-isnt-the-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/lifestyle\/perfection-isnt-the-goal\/127393.html","title":{"rendered":"Perfection Isn’t The Goal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flowers are perfect.
\n<\/span>Clouds are perfect.
\n<\/span>Babies are perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

You and me? Not\u00a0perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"perfection+shed+the+mask+sarah+mcdugal+author\"<\/a>Not when we try. Not even when our halo seems pretty convincing. Not even when we obsess on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Actually\u2026 probably least of all when we obsess on it. Obsessing on perfection turns us into hypocritical obnoxious snobs. The type of friends\u00a0nobody wants to hang out with. The type of parents every child wishes they could trade for someone else\u2019s. The type of spouse everyone wishes they\u2019d seen behind the mask back when you were dating.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That first blog post<\/a> I shared, the one that ripped the mask off my survival story? It felt scary to put out there\u00a0on social media, but it could have been\u00a0worse. I\u2019ll admit I went back and compulsively tweaked it for the first few days. #perfectionist<\/p>\n

Wanna guess where it was most nerve-wracking to post? In my\u00a0private Facebook group\u00a0for pastor\u2019s wives. My former peers. A support group of over a thousand ministry spouses around the world that I grew from the ground up a few years ago. That group was my baby. It was where I ministered to everyone else, without really showing what was happening with me.<\/p>\n

Sharing the story of how my pastor\u2019s wife life fell apart, with the group that has the capacity to stand in judgment of my imperfection the most \u2013 that was the hardest. But perfection isn\u2019t the goal\u2026 Relationship is.<\/p>\n

\"perfection+shed+the+mask+sarah+mcdugal+author\"<\/a>Relationship with people.
\nRelationship with family.
\nRelationship with God.<\/p>\n

And relationships are messy. Frightening. Vulnerable.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0often seems like they\u2019d be easier if we held each other at arm\u2019s length and kept the masks firmly in place.<\/p>\n

Except that then there\u2019s no real relationship at all. The pursuit of perfection precludes all possible depth.<\/p>\n

Which leads us to today\u2019s question\u2026<\/p>\n

If you stopped caring about perfection, and invested more in relationship, who would benefit most?<\/em><\/p>\n

Your family?
\n<\/span>Your children?
\n<\/span>Your spouse?
\n<\/span>Your colleagues?<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s holding you back?<\/p>\n

\n

Reprinted with permission from Sarah’s blog<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>You can purchase\u00a0Sarah\u2019s book here:\u00a0ONE FACE: Shed the Mask, Own Your Values, and Lead Wisely<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flowers are perfect. Clouds are perfect. Babies are perfect. You and me? Not\u00a0perfect. Not when we try. Not even when our halo seems pretty convincing. Not even when we obsess on it. Actually\u2026 probably least of all when we obsess on it. Obsessing on perfection turns us into hypocritical obnoxious snobs. The type of friends\u00a0nobody…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1603,"featured_media":7397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[200,96,182],"thb-sponsors":[],"yst_prominent_words":[1023,1125,2079,1270],"class_list":["post-7393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotional-health","category-lifestyle","tag-emotional-health-2","tag-mental-health","tag-mind-body-spirit","post_format-post-format-image"],"acf":[],"views":597,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1603"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7393"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7393\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7398,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7393\/revisions\/7398"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7393"},{"taxonomy":"thb-sponsors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thb-sponsors?post=7393"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeandhealth.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=7393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}