Recognize and Embrace Your Imperfections

The following is adapted from The Extraordinary UnOrdinary You.

Rats totaled my family’s minivan. I’m not kidding. 

It started innocently enough. My son Noah was in the backseat, and before backing out of the garage, I turned around to remind him to buckle up. “Noah, why is there popcorn all over the seat?” I asked. 

“I don’t know,” he shrugged.

I started to drive, but something just didn’t seem right. I couldn’t get the image of popcorn out of my mind. Halfway out of the garage and into the driveway, it hit me. That wasn’t popcorn! It was the fluff from inside the seats. 

I stopped the car and got outside to investigate. Almost every seat had chunks out of it, and rat poop was everywhere. Somehow, rats had gotten into our car, probably through the engine block. I’m sure they were in heaven because, with six kids, there were probably crackers shoved in every nook and cranny of that minivan. They had such a feast that the insurance appraiser informed us several days later that the repairs would cost so much that he had to total the car. 

Your problem may not be rats in the minivan, but we all have human days like this because, well, we’re human. To be honest, every day is a human day, and that is perfectly okay. Actually, it’s better than okay. It’s good. The idea of perfection is overrated. Imperfections give us the chance to laugh, teach us how to grow, and encourage us to become better people. 

I encourage you to stop hiding your imperfections, and instead, recognize, and embrace them. Your life will feel so much better when you stop trying to measure up to an unattainable ideal. 

Exposing Flaws isn’t a Sign of Weakness

It’s okay to be human. We learn from our mistakes, and exposing flaws isn’t a sign of weakness. My daughter had a first-grade teacher who actually celebrated when they made mistakes, because mistakes meant that they were learning. They would clap and sing and then correct the mistake. Every kid in that class was willing to raise their hand and take a risk because they knew they wouldn’t be ridiculed for making a mistake.

We’re not supposed to be perfect. To be honest, I don’t strive for perfection, because that’s not reality. I strive to be the best me I can be, and the best me is still human and full of flaws. Those flaws are a part of me, and I learn so much from them. I am sure that others learn from my flaws too. 

Some of the most inspiring people to me are the people who expose their flaws. They don’t try to pretend that they’re perfect, because they know that nobody is. Everybody is different. We have different strengths and weaknesses—that’s what being human is about. It’s important that we accept our own humanness and be happy with where we are. 

We are all going to have ridiculous moments in our lives—moments where we question our own sanity and our ability to accomplish even the littlest of things. Life is not going to be easy all of the time, but that’s what makes it a journey. We never know what lies ahead. All we can do is face our adventure with courage and keep a good sense of humor.

We can choose to make ourselves miserable, or we can choose to figure out a solution. I make the choice to do the things I can and to stop being miserable over those things that I can’t do anything about.

The Power of Misinformation

Social media has shown us the power of both information and misinformation. The ability to connect with people and disseminate information quickly to large groups is probably one of the most powerful pieces of the internet today. The problem is that there is so much information that it can be difficult to comb through and figure out what is real and what is fake. 

Unlike the pictures you see on social media, nobody’s life is perfect. Yet, many of us strive to only post the great stuff on social media, leaving others to believe that our life is the picture of perfection. Recently, I had a photograph taken of all our kids together in one location—without the assistance of Photoshop. 

When people look at it, they tell me how amazing it is and how lucky I am to have kids who just sit and smile for the camera. They didn’t see the other five thousand photos that the photographer took where the kids were pushing each other and complaining. I chose to share the one moment out of thousands that had the image I wanted people to see. But a photo is only one moment in a thousand. It isn’t reality, but we still use it to compare our own life to others’ lives.

We may see someone’s perfect moment on social media, but what we don’t see is what happened before the photo or what happened after the photo. We don’t see the thousands of human moments that happen around and between the one perfect moment that was posted. 

Perfection Not Required

When people try too hard to seem perfect, it usually ends up a lot like our minivan. From the outside, it looked totally fine, but on the inside, it was a complete and total disaster. I’m not implying that people’s lives are complete and total disasters, but we often tend to show others our best selves instead of our real selves.

We all have our weaknesses. We all have things that we struggle with. The more we accept our humanness, the more good we can do. Perfection isn’t required. Sometimes we’ll get frustrated. Sometimes we’ll freak out. And sometimes we just need to have a sense of humor and laugh at ourselves. Even in the ridiculous moments, we all have something to give. It’s our job to figure out what that is, and to go out there and do it. It won’t be perfect, but it will be worthwhile.

For more advice on embracing imperfection, you can find The Extraordinary UnOrdinary You on Amazon.

Simone Knego leads an ordinary life filled with extraordinary moments. As a wife, mother to six children (and three dogs), and a serial entrepreneur, she splits her time between her family, businesses, and personal growth. She’s realized the small choices she makes every day to do good actually have the power to inspire others. Simone shared that message during speaking opportunities she received as co-chair of the National Young Leadership Cabinet for the Jewish Federations of North America. With this book, she hopes to inspire you to embrace life’s ups and downs and realize the impact you’re making on the world.