Perfectionism is very dangerous, because of course if your fidelity to perfectionism is too high, you never do anything.
David Foster Wallace
Welcome to Day Four of Embrace Imperfection
Creativity is not limited to making art; it’s a playful and courageous way of being in the world that includes trying new things, taking risks, and laughing at and learning from your imperfect efforts along the way. Revered Benedictine Sister and social justice advocate Joan Chittister writes: “The concept of perfectibility, the idea that anything human can possibly be perfect…concentrates on the elimination of errors rather than the value of efforts. Few people play Chopin’s Minute Waltz in a minute, but generation after generation tries to conquer the piece and, in the trying, get better and better, happier and happier with themselves.” The idea that it’s in the trying — the practice — that our lives are enriched offers a compelling invitation to unleash our creativity.
While you may have fairly well perfected your equivalent of the Minute Waltz — whether it be music, writing, cooking, gardening, caretaking, communicating, leading, or some other creative endeavor — what aspect of your life would benefit from greater creative expression or experimentation, even if wildly imperfect? What if the goals of your efforts included playful exploration, enjoyment, and beauty? Living gratefully beckons us to awaken to possibility, and creativity is available in some form to all of us. When perfection becomes a roadblock to trying something new or pushing at the edge of your creative passion, it’s a rejection of sorts, a turning away. Today’s focus is about embracing the imperfection of creativity and saying yes to the trying, to the playful practice.
Begin by reading Maya Stein’s poem, the construction project, in which she describes the joy she finds in her “body turned toward an act of making, however imperfect.”
the construction project
By Maya Stein
Why not hire a professional? would be the logical question, but then I’d miss the quizzical
look I got from the hardware store clerk when I made theatrical gestures with my hands
to mimic a mailbox post being installed, and the drive-through lane of the lumberyard
where I opened the window to drifts of cedar and pine, and the surprisingly intimate
feeling of a drill in my hands at the golden hour of late afternoon, and how the lawn
where I worked became a cheering section of dandelions, and the way I started talking
to the screws, as if I were their guidance counselor. I’m not done yet, of course. This is
the price of chipping away at a language I will never be fluent in. But I’m not in it for
the expertise. I want, instead, the improvisation of the unskilled, my fingertips on the
craggy edge of discovery, my body turned toward an act of making, however imperfect.
After reading the poem, consider the following:
- Do you allow yourself to experience this kind of delight in being a beginner, this savoring of the imperfect creation?
- How is saying yes to this kind of creativity an expression of gratefulness?
Today’s Practice: Let Yourself Play
To begin, enjoy this inspiring and delightful 4-minute video by Reflections of Life in which the narrator Gina shares her playful, imperfect, and meaningful creative project. As you consider your own creative act, take note of her message to “trust in life and just stitch.”
After watching the short video, let yourself play. Play, of course, is inherently imperfect; in fact, we expect it to be a bit messy and always without a known outcome. And if there’s one essential ingredient of creativity, it’s the willingness and ability to adopt a playful stance. In his book Play Matters, Miguel Sicart reminds us that play is much more than games or puzzles but is a way of living. He writes: “Play is a mode of being human. Like literature, art, song, and dance, like politics and love and math, play is a way of engaging and expressing our being in the world.” When we show up to our lives with a sense of play, creativity follows.
Step One: Unleash Your Imperfect Creativity
Identify a specific area in your life where you’d like to unleash your imperfect creativity — finally writing that poem, leading or parenting differently, cooking or gardening, communicating with a beloved in a new way, etc. For this practice, pick one creative act as your focus.
Step Two: Approach Your Creative Act Through Play
Approach your creative act through play by considering the principles of play and accompanying questions below.
- Play is open-ended: What is one way you can try out your creative act with curiosity and exploration rather than a specific outcome in mind?
- Play is learning: Get specific about approaching your creative act with a growth mindset. How will you pause to learn from the imperfections that inevitably occur?
- Play disrupts routines and habits: Lean in to your creativity as a way to mix things up a bit. Is there a particular way your creativity can bring a new rhythm to some aspect of your daily life?
- Play can heal: Is there a way that unleashing your creativity might be healing to you or those around you?
Today’s Action to Embrace Imperfection
Take one step to show up to your creative act with a sense of play, trusting that there’s meaning in the trying. Remain open to the surprise, learning, and joy that arises from your imperfect creativity.
Scroll to the bottom of the page (or click here) to find the Community Conversation space where we invite you to share your reflections about today’s practice.
Deepening Resource
Earth Altars: A Practice for Grateful Living by Laura Loescher
Enjoy this article and video about creating earth altars, or nature mandalas, as a gratefulness practice. Because they are temporary, there’s incredible freedom to create with a sense of play and openness to imperfection. Unleash your creativity by building your own earth altar on your next walk or by adapting the author’s openness to possibility to your own creative endeavor.
Research Highlight
While Joan Chittister references the happiness that can be found in the trying, research points out that perfectionism functions in the opposite way, putting up a roadblock to practice or effort. A study of a group of cyclists found that the performance of those with high levels of perfectionism plummeted when they believed they had not done well on a first timed race. They gave up. Those with lower scores of self-oriented perfectionism tried to improve. In short, perfectionism “actively obstructs us from trying in the first place.”
The Rise of Perfection and the Harm It’s Doing Us All , Will Coldwell, The Guardian, June 4, 2023
Photo by Alex Presa
Embrace Imperfection
How would it feel to release the need for perfection in favor of living? In this self-guided series, explore daily grateful living practices that will help you appreciate the imperfections in life that offer surprising meaning.
Perfectionism, and its shame shadow, have prevented me from dancing, singing, painting, improv, and loving relationships.
Thank you so much for these insightful and supportive works.
I loved how Gina stitched her heart and feelings….Many pieces tell the story. When we are creative–we don’t have to be perfect. She thinks deeply such as stitching her version of the pages in Out of Africa. Inspiring.
“Sew Many Days” touched me deeply. I started sewing as a young girl and was taught so much by the women of my family. My mother taught me to use the sewing machine. My grandmother taught me to crochet and piece quilts. My aunt taught me to knit and she and I learned many quilting techniques together. Embroidery and appliqué were self-taught. I started out making clothes for my Barbie. When I stitch, it becomes a meditative practice as well as a channel for my creativity.
Love ‘The Construction Project’ …. It expressed all the layers of whimsy and Joy, Trust, and sense of “I can” whenever I set out to create, make, or build something.
I love to sew from my own patterns, transform a clothing item into something different, and make apparel that is multi-use. I love to write poetry that writes itself, and, paint landscapes of places that touch my heart, for various reasons, as well as, images of simple objects that express metaphor. I love to be a volunteer on construction projects and building anything that is three-dimensional, particularly, using the medium of clay..
All that being said, I have always had a fear of cutting hair. I’ve always wondered how hairdressers create the myriad of hairstyles we see around the world. It is one area of creativity that I have never considered trying. But, today’s call to unleash creativity moved me to cut my hair. And, I can say it was easy breezy!! I am 63 years old and have never cut my own hair! And, the curious thing with hair is it’s so forgiving. AND, it continues growing! It’s similar to certain fabrics in the realm of sewing. It doesn’t call for perfection!!
I always love that word, forgiving!!! It actually requires and thrives on imperfection. It, truly is for giving, a mode in which to give to another as well as to oneself!! As it is said … To give is to receive!! …. As we forgive those who trespass against us!! In the blink of forgiving we receive!
Unleashing creativity is ours for giving …. Fun Day! I had fun!! My hair had fun, too!!! ✂️ ❤️🙋♀️
Thank you for this! Creative play and heartfelt expression is so vital, for all of us, and maybe even more especially for those with a dedicated artistic practice and/or production of some sort. Keeping the wonder, excitement and discovery at the forefront is a good thing! It also adds layers of focus and paying attention too. I have noticed that the most accomplished artists (of any kind – music, arts, dance or writing) regularly do this to stretch forward in their practice! Just to see where it can take them! Lovely! A good thing to be reminded of and to practice! It helps to shut out the ego, and keeps us humble too! ~;0). That may be one of the best gifts of all! ha!
WOW. I enjoyed SO much reading and digesting the “Imperfect creativity” session.
Recently, I started to learn and play with Zentangle.
It is such great way to unleashed your Imperfect Creativity.
And, then feel joy and surprise for the end result!!!!!!
I think, my new one is cooking.
I really do not like to cook, but I love to eat.
I am feeling that I need to put love into it and embrace my imperfect creativity.
We will see…………………..
In gratitude
I have thoroughly enjoyed this gift from Grateful Living. Several years ago while recovering from surgery and chemotherapy, my sister-in-law tossed a ball of yarn at me and said, “You can’t do much right now, but you can crochet.” I had not held a crochet hook for years but that encounter started a recurrence of creativity that produced hats, scarves, afghans and bunny clothes for friends and relations young and old and fed a creative side of me during COVID. I find great synchronicity in the Words for the Day and use them often in my teaching.
I enjoy needlepoint making up my own stitches. My family cannot appreciate it because it is not a recognizable picture. Nonetheless I went ahead and framed a collection and enjoy it myself.
I really do love to play! I am a teacher and it is such and important part of learning for kids and for adults.
Play is, in fact, the best research as Einstein said.
But for me, play is a little different. It reminds me of how precious life is and how God WANTS us to enjoy our time. I know people who have lost the art of play. I am grateful that I have not. I can feel comfortable romping around in snow with kids or deliberately going through puddles on a walk by myself. Last summer, I stopped at this particular corner each day to feed a bird. I thought the cardinal waited for me.
Play gives me hope, though I probably can’t tell you how or why. I have had a few losses and some big changes recently…and they were rather close together. Play softens this and remind me who I am. and what matters.
Play often makes everything okay for me.
I am so grateful for this course, so inspired to make an earth altar after watching the video by Laura Loescher.
It is so freeing to realize I can drop the unrealistic, perfectionistic strivings that have played such a major part in my
life, talk about them and release them. Thank you!!
YES PLEASE! IN THE STUDIO: play! Letting my life speak! I’m sharing that process, not making something in particular, or seeking to monetize, or be productive. Playing with fiber, tools, my dust! Playing with pics and food, and spaces! And yes, I do it as I find it in peaceful me. 💖💦✨😘
Adorable!
Thank you very much for the essential content to help me find the the beauty around me!
How much creativity exists in nature, in the works of the Creator.
I must add that I really liked this video!
My mother passed away and this week I was preparing to donate the sewing machine she used. It was poetic and restorative to watch the video and reflect on everything she sewed in life.
Lovely practice today! Thank you very much!
These lessons have inspired me to return to finishing my memior of living among the Amish. I have finally realized that perfectionism has held me back, inducing self-talk that the book isn’t good enough, or that the Amish community I write about will find fault in the book. Thanks to these wonderful lessons, my focus is now on excellence in writing, not in fear of wondering what others may think.
Yesterday I made a little black kitten from a sock with a big hole in the heel. That felt playful and there was a big laugh when the sock owner discovered the kitten, rolled into the remaining sock, looking just like the pair he thought he was going to wear.
As I read this piece I immediately thought of all the creative endeavors throughout my life that I have let fall by the wayside. Embroidery, knitting, basketry, Mandela coloring. At first I felt ashamed but then I thought, wait, these all served me well at different times in my life when I needed that specific creative outlet.
Embroidery when I was first married and made pillowcases, Christmas stockings, dish towels lovingly for my new home.
Knitting when my children were infants and I adored making tiny sweaters, hats, farm animals for them.
Basketry when I needed to get out of the house(and the children!)and use my hands to create something for me, I still use those baskets to this day.
Mandela coloring when I was quite ill and depressed from being downsized from a job I loved, I found the rhythm of coloring daily soothed me.
Now my creative juices flow into my flowers, right now I have created 15 pots of tulips coming into bloom inside my house! Choosing the color palettes, pots, planting in the winter months-to feel that rich soil in my fingers-areas to display these beauties then sharing my blooms in photos brings me such joy. It truly is my play.
These days I am focusing on just being, always walking the beach, listening to the bird song out of my window, and letting go of the need to have a perfect life.