I have a confession to make. I am a recovering perfectionist.

At my best, I want to give the highest level of excellence to everything I do. At my worst, it is just plain crazy-making that keeps me stuck and unable to take the necessary actions.

Can you relate?

One situation in my life that has helped me relax my death grip on being perfect was saving a young man from drowning in a life and nearly being drowned in the process of helping him. It was the messiest, most imperfect thing that I had ever done.

I didn’t follow the “proper procedures” from the hand book. I got caught off guard. I had to save myself first in order to be able to save him. It was a fight to live.

But guess what? My messy, imperfect action that had intention behind it still saved a life!

When I remember that, it is the most liberating thing! But when I forget that, I am right back at being stuck and paralyzed with fear.

Perfection tendencies can also show up in your hands using Scientific Hand Analysis. One example is the student path of the Innovator, which is your left ring finger, also known as an Apollo finger. The student path is paralyzing fear of rejection especially from your peers. And yup, I have that in my hands and am currently moving through this exact fear. Hands contain such an amazing wealth of insight and wisdom that can help you understand yourself better to take more inspired action when aware.

If you have perfection tendencies, do your best to be kind to yourself. Remember imperfect action gets results. Perfectionism does not. Take one small messy, imperfect action step at a time. Like this imperfect blog post.

Never ever underestimate the power of imperfect action. You can make a difference imperfectly.

This is the fifth and last blog post in a series of life lessons from the lake.

If you want to discover the student paths in your hands that are blocking you click here to learn more and sign up for your True You Life Purpose session.