Impeccable

A dear friend of mine recently told me she aspired to lead an “impeccable life.” After a life struggling against various addictions, she has been strong, healthy, and empowered for more than one year and motivated to become impeccable, and therefore a role model for others struggling as she did.

I told her that I completely supported her in her journey, how proud of her I was, and how much I admired her. In fact I was in awe of the inner strength she possessed to face down and conquer so many demons (addictions). And now that she had risen above the darkness, I cautioned, just really be yourself now, not merely a perfect version of herself. “Be impeccable in being you. But remember that you, like all human beings, are not perfect. Appreciate the imperfections as they provide great opportunity for laughter and not taking ourselves too seriously. I once realized that I was not really that great a dancer because i was fairly awkward at times, hardly graceful and lithe. But I was very very good — even creative and artistic — at recovering from the awkward steps and slips I often had. Be the most impeccable version of yourself you can be, flaws and all.”

Remember that if we were really perfect beings, would life have any more challenge? The secret, it seems to me, is not in trying to create perfection of our life. It is in the moment to moment listening to our heart, in getting the noise of life and our mental chatter out of the way so our own intuition can guide us. Each moment. With each decision. From one perfectly impeccable moment to another.

Enjoy being yourself.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
— Steve Jobs, founder, Apple Computer