“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”
(John Steinbeck)

Perfectionism is a disease. Once introduced into a system, it permeates into practically every arena of life: work, school, sport, parenting, romance, diet, exercise, sex…everything. What makes it so dangerous is how it can appear truthful, by infiltrating good virtues like excellence, quality, self-esteem, finishing a task, or “doing your best.” One theory about the struggles of Millennials is their struggle with perfectionism:
–In the Information Age, where all the world’s answers await only the perfectly phrased Siri question or Google search, the idea of making a mistake out of ignorance is no longer allowed.
–In the Self-Esteem Age, where all the world’s parents were sold on propping up our kids’ egos, and therefore protecting them from all failure, then making any mistake at all is terrifying.

Here’s the truth: you can either be perfect, or you can be real. Same with your kids.

(This is one of the main messages in the book I wrote to my daughter, Choose Your Own Adulthood. It became an Amazon Bestseller, and of course, you can find it there. But I’m even more excited that next month, we will be releasing the Online Learning and Growth version of it on our new Pause Platform – in editions specifically designed for high-schoolers, college students and twenty-somethings in the workplace. Look out for more information on that later this month!)

Peace begins with pause,