how to embrace Imperfection and find your authentic creative expression

Recently, I had an insightful coaching conversation with a client of mine.

One of her biggest DESIRES in life is to make her vision come true: She wants to share her wisdom and creative work with the world and build, lead, and inspire her soul community.

But whenever she gets to work, she:

thinks her creations need to be perfect
gets overwhelmed by the mountain of tasks that lay before her
feels as if no one is there to support her in her work
gives up soon after
judges herself for procrastinating once again

Every creative work session is a huge disappointment. It proves a hurtful belief she has: „I can’t get things done“.

After repeating this cycle for months on end, she feels:

exhausted and depressed
anxious and unsafe
overwhelmed
alone

And, worst of all: She doubts whether or not she can bring her vision to life.

I am no stranger to this cycle. I had such high expectations of both myself and my work that I legit did not launch my business for a year.

In the past, perfectionism has cost me my creativity.

Now, the work I create in flow states has become the foundation of my business. My efforts are finally in alignment with my purpose.

In this blog post, I am sharing with you how to:

understand and embrace your inner perfectionist
find your true authentic expression and create work that is deeply meaningful to you
honor your needs as a feminine, intuitive, and sensitive creative
access states of creative flow and fully immerse yourself in the creative process

DISCLAIMER

The knowledge contained in the following writing is not meant to aid you in blaming your inner perfectionist.

Suppressing your perfectionist will do more harm than good.

I understand that this part of you can be very hurtful, but there is a place and time for perfectionism.

If you care about your work, it is natural to want it to be at its absolute best. You want to pour your SOUL into it. You want it to move your soul tribe and be in alignment with your true self.

But, there is a difference between:

knowing WHEN to be perfectionistic with your creative work
not creating anything for months because of your high expectations

Read on, if you find yourself in that second category and want to join the first one.

How A Perfectionist Is Born

Every person I know of who deals with perfectionism has had a strict parent or role model growing up.

Watching a child that enjoys life (and creates so effortlessly) is difficult for a parent in survival mode.

That resentment manifests itself as the caregiver(s):

demanding support with ADULT responsibilities
telling (or merely encouraging) the child to spend time on other USEFUL and productive skills
asking for MORE from their creations, or
BELITTLING their creative work entirely.

Do these sound familiar to you? If yes, what did your inner child learn from hearing this?

„My authentic creations are not good enough. I am not good enough.“

What Your Perfectionist Is Trying To Achieve

As a child, my client - who had a strict father - believed his high expectations to be true. She thought the perfect work would finally give her the encouragement and love she craved.

Children struggle to differentiate their artistic output from themselves. They internalize, mirror and apply these criticisms to themselves because they need their parent's love and support for SURVIVAL.

That’s why I call the perfectionist your inner strict parent.

Perfectionism is a coping strategy that attempts to make YOU good enough. It controls your creative output so you are finally seen and can be whole (= loved) again.

Why You (Still) Procrastinate As An Adult

Even now, my client's work can never quite reach the high standard she puts up for herself. That feeling of „I am not good enough“ stays - no matter the „quality“ of her work.

That belief sets her up for failure every time she has a creative spark.

Her body remembers the unachievable high expectations and goes into survival mode. In essence, she is recreating her childhood environment. Creativity becomes a source of re-traumatization.

Let's slow that down.

This is how you go from having a creative idea to full-on shutdown mode and procrastination as an adult:

You experience a surge of artistic energy and an idea comes to mind.
Your brain strives for perfection. It sends its weapon - the strict parent - to extinguish that spark. The perfectionist "knows" the idea is not good enough to be let out into the wild. It is protecting you from failure and ostracization.
The perfectionist's expectations feel like a huge mountain of work coming your way. In this toxic environment, the creative spark goes out. Your inner child gets sent to their room.
Now, your nervous system is in a state of dysregulation. You avoid the task because of the huge gap between where you are now and where your work should be.

Repeat that cycle a couple of times and you start believing:

I am not a creative person
I am not capable of producing valuable art
I can not get things done
I can not make money being creative (= it's a struggle)

Every failure is further proof that these beliefs are true.

The Key to Endless Inspiration:

Unlocking the Creative Power of Your Inner Child

When you were a child, do you remember:

buzzing with excitement at the prospect of playing outside
creating fictional games out of nowhere
never getting bored
being in awe and inspired by nature
creating imperfect art just for the fun of it
playing with your favorite toys and making up whole movie plots

Before children are exposed to the expectations of others, they don’t care what others think. Their brains don’t even go there.

That is why they have much greater access to the spiritual energy called creativity.

Keep this in mind: YOUR INNER CHILD CAN ALWAYS ACCESS CREATIVITY.

The question is: How do you create a safe for them to come out and play?

The answer to that question is how you can access your authentic creative expression (again).

Do you want to break free from the chains of perfectionism and unleash your creative potential?

Learn how to nurture your inner artist in my exclusive guide: 7 Steps to Break Free From Perfectionism and Reignite Your Creativity.

Click here to download your copy for free !

With love,