Beauty and perfection are not the same.
This is what I saw as I was scrolling on LinkedIn, trying to avoid getting up and keeping my morning rolling.
An acquaintance of mine had posted about her piano recital- something she had started doing in her older years and was pursuing as a hobby to push out of her comfort zone. As she had been preparing for a recital, it occurred to her that the most beautiful way to perform a piece did not include the requirement of perfection. Similarly, a perfect recitation would not make the piece beautiful.
As a piano player myself, I immediately agreed. There’s emotion that one can put into a piece. It’s a three-way conversation often, between both hands and the inner systems recognizing the feelings that the sound creates as you crescendo or accelerate, suspend resolution or build tension. These are the things that make a song beautiful, not their perfect performance.
Similarly, I did some coloring last night in order to relax and keep my hands from reaching for a digital device, while listening to an audio book and letting the body recover from a long, and well-spent day.
Near the end of my drawing, I drew parallel lines free-hand to fill in the background, intentionally wanting imperfection to be part of the art. (see here a picture of the finished page, along with a zoom in of the imperfect lines)
Both of these were well-timed reminders, that the imperfections in our experiences are what often make something “perfect” or worthy doing and remembering.
So just like this imperfect drawing, my work is not perfectly booked, perfectly on track, or perfectly hitting 100 novel things
Here’s what “work” looks like these days:
I have a spot that has opened up for consulting. If you know someone who has a business problem they can’t quite find resolution for (this could be an implementation problem, team friction, AI adoption, figuring out where your leads are going, etc), then they could be a great fit for my consulting services and I would love to talk to them.
Here’s what “home” looks like these days:
I’ve really been enjoying my spontaneous novelty. I don’t know if I’ll hit my 100 goal, but I had to step back and let life… well, be life. With that being said, I’m looking to join people in their favorite hobby. If you are local (or can share your hobby from afar with me), and want to invite me into this with you, I would love to hear about what you love to do so please reply back!
Beauty and perfection are not the same. Young Rachel did not understand this. But I’m glad that today, I can see exactly how beautiful showing up imperfectly to the world around me can be.
Talk soon,
Rachel
Leadership trainer, novelty junkie, and human being
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Have you seen this quick read?
I Scheduled 100 Things and Took a Nap Instead
Preview: For some it was 3 days of vacation. For me, 3 days of rest.
‘All good things come to an end,’ they say. And if that’s true, then my sprinting (if you consider sprinting through life a good thing) came to an end this weekend because I was in bed with exhaustion the whole time. We’re talking 1800’s fainting couch fatigue. Oh, the drama!
Thanks for joining me on my search for novelty and one human-centric leaders's journey towards a more balanced life.
