Dragons hoard, right? There are so many images of them curled up on a pile of gold and gems….which can’t be all that comfortable! So many lumps and hard surfaces and pointy things.
In my own life, as well as with my clients, I find it helps to personify things. In this case, let’s call perfectionism the Perfection Dragon. It hoards, it’s dramatic, and it symbolizes something mythical.
The Perfection Dragon Hoards
How many ideas do you have in a day? In a week? A year? Think of allll the projects you’ve wanted to start, all of the things that you’ve wanted to do or learn. If you haven’t done them, you might have a Perfection Dragon problem.
The Perfection Dragon wants to keep all of our sparkly dreams and ideas to itself. If we started acting on those dreams, we’d be pulling stuff out of its hoard, and then its sleeping pile would shrink. Which would suck for the dragon, of course.
Now, you might be thinking that the Perfection Dragon is being mean and selfish. Actually, it wants to protect us from getting hurt. An overzealous guardian, you might say. See, as long as we don’t try anything new, we can’t fail and thus we can’t get hurt. Safe and sound. Perfection Dragon happy.
But there’s a price to that (false) sense of safety. We will get hurt—get hurt by disappointing ourselves or others, get hurt by feeling like something is missing in our lives, get hurt by a sense that we are neglecting our gifts, or get hurt through regret that we didn’t act on our dreams.
The Perfection Dragon Is Dramatic
This one’s pretty obvious, right? What isn’t dramatic about a dragon? Unfurling huge wings, flying through the air, collecting fabulous shiny things, and, um, breathing fire?!? So. Much. Drama.
That drama extends to its self-appointed guardianship of us. When we start to make a move towards our dreams and goals, we can be met with a scaly wing across our path and a long lecture about how it will never work because we won’t be able to do it perfectly. If we venture past the wing, we might even get a warning blast of flame—echoing the hot flush that comes with embarrassment or shame, the sweaty palms of nervousness.
The Perfection Dragon Represents Something Mythical
What do the Perfection Dragon and perfection have in common? Neither exist, as far as I know! Absolutely nothing in this world is completely perfect. So we don’t have to be. And our work doesn’t have to be perfect either. Even if something looks perfect, there’s likely a molecule out of place somewhere. If we can stop striving for a goal we’ll never meet, we have a better chance of getting closer to our perfectly imperfect goals.
Also, no matter how big and scary and heavy the Perfection Dragon may feel, it too is mythical. That wing across your path isn’t really there. The fire can’t really burn you. It takes a moment of courage to keep going when we sense the Dragon, but if we can do it, we can get that much closer to doing the things that can help us build lives that feel meaningful and worthwhile. (And doing more cool shit.)
When first starting to go past the Dragon, it can help to have a guide and support. I’m willing to take that journey with you. On any journey, a map can come in handy. So if you haven’t already, grab your free copy of the Get Focused and Make Cool Stuff workbook and start planning your adventure. That’s it for this week—stay sweet to your weird selves!
