Dreaming Up Perfection

Oprah knows for sure that, “What you believe has more power than what you dream or wish or hope for. You become what you believe.” What do you believe would be perfect for you now? Are you expecting that perfection, merely wanting the ideal, or actively working on creating the perfect job, lover, and creative project? Even when you believe that your perfect life exists only in daydreams you can still be caught by that ideal. Consider that everything in this moment is perfect for this moment. We only have this moment to breathe, love and create in. We have put great effort and intention in creating this moment, how will you live it? Would changing your beliefs about perfection effect the actions you take? Would you accept life more on life’s terms, and be more open to what comes rather than holding out for the ideal?

When we use perfection as a bludgeon in which to measure things by, we’ll never add up and won’t meet our own expectations. When we are paralyzed by a search for perfection the desire to do something perfect may keep us from ever doing it at all. Do you have a book to write? A picture to paint? How about a new career move or great invention on the back burner? For most of us there are at least a few things in our lives that we hesitate to take action on. So what is the perfection we seek anyway? What would it look like? Are we dreaming of Daddy’s acceptance, spiritual enlightenment, a new world order, or a desire to fit in? Our belief in perfection are all that’s stopping us from realizing that we can accept ourselves, know spiritual enlightenment in this moment and live in both a new world order and a community.

I had a wonderful dream the other night, a complete children’s story that I was participating in.

Toys and objects in that dream all had a soul and were animated. Jojo was an everlasting votive candle whose flame cheered everyone around him. Somehow he got caught in a belief that he was inconsequential and different. He ran away to find someone like him. After an extensive community-wide search we finally found him with his wax run down, and always sturdy wick almost burnt out with depression. I carried him and talked to him about how his light affected us, and how perfect he was just as himself. We found an unanimated candle that was lit to remind him of his light. How many of us need to be reminded that our light is perfect and essential in that moment?

This week’s exercise is to work with our beliefs about perfection. What do you do when you discover you’re not really where you believed you should be? Do you rail against life, or pick yourself up and reassess what you did to get there? Inevitably on a daily basis you will find yourself off-course from where you believe you “should be”. The exercise is to first accept where you are in that moment as perfect. You made your action based on what you knew. Now you can make another decision based upon a new level of knowledge. When you allow your beliefs to be fluid and changing you can dream up a new perfect moment. Literally you can start your day all over again at any time. After working with this exercise write about how it felt to redirect your belief in perfection, what did you learn about yourself?

“As we adjust our belief, we 'recreate' our world” ~ CG Walters