Resiliency: Perfectionism vs. Excellence

I start feeling like I haven’t taken a bath or brushed and flossed my teeth or had a good meal or a restful night of sleep… if I stay away from writing for too long. Writing for me is like… mental hygiene, like soul-love. And I’ve not been able to find my way into the exposure of this blog of late.
Yes, life and work have been intense, leaving me with more ideas of what to blog about than I can get to in any reasonable time. But something else has kept me from putting pen to blog, so to speak. I’ve been away from this blog long enough now that my self-imposed need to say something important, if I am going to say anything at all, is now getting in the way of me saying… anything.
This reminds me of a distinction between seeking perfection verses excellence, that I like. Perfectionism never arrives, is never enough, can never be enough, and in truth, is an addiction to the same mentality.
Seeking excellence in what one does, or is in life…, in contrast to perfectionism, stands one in a dynamic state of learning. One is thus able to exercise living and discernment… without descending into judgment of self or of others.
Having been acculturated into a world view of righteous judgment and condemnation, a fundamentalist world view of never being enough, of never being able to be enough, a world view where grace was extended to those never deserving of it—but whom were nonetheless required to hold to specified beliefs and behaviors in order to receive it… well, I can too easily fall into my own patterns of self-judgment.
It is one of those resiliently self-reinforcing negative patterns that can be difficult to break out of at times. So I’m intending a swim into the River-of-Life’s current of excellence with this blog post, intending relaxation into a self-expression that flows not from the need to be insightful and wise… but from a relaxation that arises out of contentment with wonder and awe, with silence, with breathing, with being.
It is time to for me to get outside where I can most easily relax into being, time to go for a walk and time to enjoy what it is to live inside a body, time to let a few appropriate quotes filtrate into my system, time to re-orient toward and to re-member my own innate wild resilience!

What you seek is closer to you than your own breath. — Tony Parsons

Don’t pretend to be what you are not, don’t refuse to be what you are. — Nisargadatta Maharaj

The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me: my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love. — Meister Eckhart

How do you re-member your wild-resilience? What practices serve you… to help you remember who you are, to help you renew and touch the love of life that you carry inside?

Where in life are you oriented toward excellence, and where do you orient toward excellence?

Resiliency: Perfectionism vs. Excellence Revisited