I thought I would talk to you about something that’s really on my mind today. I’m sitting here in Chicago at my desk. It’s kind of a dreary, cloudy day and it’s about 55 degrees outside. We’re transitioning into winter, which in Chicago can be so brutal.When I woke up this morning, I knew I had a few recordings that I was going to do for the podcast, and I just wasn’t feeling it. Do you ever have those days? You just don’t know why. You feel like you slept enough, you had enough water, etc. I did a nice yoga practice yesterday and I just don’t feel on my game. I don’t feel like I’m in the zone.I spent my day thinking about ways I could bring up my energy and focus. I tried to figure out how to get myself into a better state. As Tony Robbins would say, “peak state,” so I could get onto this podcast and record an amazing riff, the best information I could possibly give to you guys.But it just wasn’t happening. My son is off of school today for parent/teacher conferences, so I took him to a local taco place and we had some lunch. Usually, spending a little time with him just gets me into the greatest mood and I thought, “Okay, as soon as I get that done, maybe I’ll have another cup of coffee and I’ll be in a better state and then I’ll be able to get my work done.”This little story illustrates how we spend so much of our time trying to figure out ways to get the world around us to make us feel better. If we could do that, we could be in a perfect state and things will go well and we’ll be on our game.I just don’t think that’s how it works. That’s why I wanted to record this episode, because today I’m just not feeling it. I’m just not feeling it, and if I sat here and I waited for perfection, if I waited for the moment when the stars aligned and my mind felt completely in some kind of incredible flow state, I don’t know if I would ever have recorded this podcast. I don’t know when I would record a podcast.Truthfully, I think I’d have about 10% of the work I have done in my life complete.It’s so rare to feel that amazing flow state, that perfect “everything around me, I’m comfortable, I have my cup of coffee, I have my favorite clothes on, I got the perfect amount of sleep, I’m in the best mood, I exercised” state of mind. Because life is really imperfect, and so what? Why do we have to wait for perfection? Why do we have to feel on our game to feel as if the work we’re doing is worthy and it’s okay and acceptable to put out into the world? What if things were just imperfect? Just good enough sometimes?Over and over and over I hear my clients use this one as an excuse, “As soon as I get this financial situation into a better place then I will. As soon as I feel a little better about myself, then I will. As soon as my relationship’s in a better place, then I will.”But the annoying part about life is that as soon as one thing gets into the state you want it to be in, another thing is not quite ideal. So I’m coming to you today from my desk on a cloudy day, feeling a little low, a little off. But truth be told, this has happened many times and I’ve recorded so many episodes, and I’ve written so many blogs, and I’ve written my book, and I built my company, talked to employees, from an imperfect place.So I wanted to share that with you in the hopes that maybe today you’re sitting there and you’re not quite feeling it? Maybe you’re waiting for something in your life to get to the next level? Maybe you just wished that one thing would come together before you would take action? And maybe this would encourage you to consider letting go of that need to have something in a better place and just step forward and do the best work you can do, and accept that it’s probably good enough.Thank you so much for tuning in this week to the Art of Authenticity. I appreciate each and every one of you for coming and listening to these shows. If you have any questions, anything on your mind, anything you want to talk about, as always, send me a note: [email protected].Thanks for ListeningAgain, thank you so much for your support! Please subscribe to the podcast if you haven’t already!Episode Resources