The Impulse to be 'perfect'

[silkmcp]

I love this topic! When I am a perfectionist, I usually have a whole picture of how I want others to see me. That is always a clue that I am dealing with my mind/ego as it is enlivened by my own feelings of inferiority. The truth is I am at this level of development for reasons beyond my full comprehension. In the absence of full comprehension, my mind constructs comparisons and stories about where I should be in my development. These stories then dampen my light a bit (shame) until I notice the con job I am doing on myself. THEN comes compassion for myself as an entity struggling toward the light without full comprehension and patterns that have not fully undone themselves. Now I can see that everyone is where they are at for reasons beyond my comprehension. Since I cannot see these reasons, it makes no sense to judge or evaluate them. ALL I can do (and I ask for the strength and wisdom to do this) is LOVE them in all their seeming imperfections. If I can do this, my perfectionist voice suddenly doesn't seem so loud.