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Seeking FUN not Perfection

It’s Wednesday and it seems like forever since I shared a slightly personal, off topic post. Today I’d like to share something I learned in yoga class yesterday.

If you can do this with a smile on your face, you’re getting somewhere!

My yoga teacher started off the class by admitting she can be a perfectionist. It’s a tendency she battles with a bit – being too picky, trying to do everything herself, the need for control over any situation.

I had to smile at this because this describes me to a T. Despite my frequent reminders to everyone in the world to accept mistakes and not seek perfection with our quilt along project, I find myself unable to practice what I’m preaching myself. I still seek perfection, and I still beat myself up when my stitching or design falls short.

So in yoga we did a funny move that required us to move from one pose to another that was sort of upside down. It didn’t feel very natural and many students crashed into one another, or the wall, and began laughing because it’s a move that would likely have been easy as kids, but has become a lot more challenging as an a adult.

At the end of class my teacher asked how many students preformed that post perfectly. No one raised their hands.

Then she asked how many of us had FUN. We all raised our hands!

Let’s go quilt,

Leah

LeahDay

Leah Day has been teaching online since 2009. She's the creator of the Free Motion Quilting Project, a blog filled with thousands of quilting tutorial videos. Leah has written several books including 365 Free Motion Quilting Designs, Explore Walking Foot Quilting with Leah Day, and Mally the Maker and the Queen in the Quilt.

7 Responses

  1. Hazel says:

    Fun is better then perfect any day .

  2. Nice reminder. However, since perfection achievement is passed down from a long line of perfection wanna bees I am doomed. My poor DH just puts up with it:-)

  3. Georgi says:

    Thanks, Leah ~ I needed this today! I started putting a big star block together and it seemed like none of the points were coming together the way they should. Frustrating ~ They're really not TOO far off, but I notice every off-kilter bit and I was tempted to start all over. But thanks to you, I'm just going to go with it and not worry that it's not perfect and have fun with it!

  4. Kristi says:

    That's awesome advice! Sounds like a great class.

  5. Love this post. I know by trying to be perfect, sometimes I get stuck and not proceed further.

    Great story!

  6. Kelly Vetch says:

    There's a segment toward the end of my favorite yoga class that feels a little more like burlesque dancing then yoga…but all of the women in the room instantly perk up and smile, laughs at themselves and whatever stress carried through the day disappears. It's good the be able to accept your imperfections with a smile and a laugh. 🙂 Thanks for sharing Leah

  7. JoAnne says:

    Thanks for telling us this. Because of you, I haven't ripped anything out for months even though I have been tempted. And I have been having so much fun. It's always a good thing to strive for perfection, but I have found that most people do not see the mistakes I make. If you don't make mistakes you are in your comfort zone and are not learning. One learns from one's mistakes!

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