This week I want to kick-off a series inspired by obstacle course racing hobby.  We’ll start with giving people permission to not be perfect and running YOUR race.

This past weekend I completed the Abominable Snow Race.  I did the Yeti Challenge consisting of 2 laps of the course which equals 11.6 miles of running/hiking through snowy forests with a lot of hills, 48 obstacles, cold temps (3 degrees at the start and a high of 20), and about 5 hours for me to complete.  This is the longest obstacle course race I had ever done, so I was nervous leading up to it.  Alice, my wise 9 year old daughter, gave me a pep talk.  She said, “This isn’t about winning, dad.  This isn’t about getting every obstacle right.  You just have to do your race at your pace.  That’s all you got to do.”  I had never had any delusions of winning.  Still, I was putting pressure on myself to have the perfect race, to ace every obstacle, to be fast, and to put in an awesome performance.  Alice’s words were exactly what I needed.  They gave me permission to not be perfect.  They were a reminder that this wasn’t about anyone else.  This was about me and my growth.  As I did the race, I failed 8 obstacles, was so much slower than I wanted to be, and dang was it ugly.  BUT, I ran my race and I FINISHED!  While I’m still sore, I’m also incredibly proud of myself because I couldn’t have done this a few months ago.  My effort and my growth is what matters, not perfection. 

How does this connect with work?  I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get concerned with being perfect.  I become obsessed with this idea that a mistake or a flaw will negate everything I do.  These thoughts paralyze me.  Do you ever feel that way?   Throughout my life, I’ve realized I don’t need to be perfect.  I just have to be willing to try.  I have to be willing to keep moving, even if the journey if filled with mistakes.  Vulnerability moment.  I’m trying to figure out my newish role, especially in the midst of business units merging together.  There are new processes, changes, and problems popping up from every direction.  I started to feel a bit like a failure, because I wasn’t perfect with all these things.  The other day I spoke to my boss and said, “Am I doing okay?  I just feel like there’s all this stuff right now that I don’t have a handle on.  Should I?  It just feels like I’m messing stuff up, like I’m not good.”  Similar to Alice, my boss more or less said, “You’re doing fine.  You can’t expect to be perfect right now with all this stuff popping up.  You’re good.  Keep moving forward.”  It was permission to not be perfect.  It was permission to not have everything figured out, and that made all the difference.  It was a reminder to keep moving forward.  It was a reminder to focus on my effort and my growth, because those are the things that will get me to where I want to go and help me become who I want to be.

The challenge:  Are you giving yourself permission to not be perfect?  Are you giving other people permission to not be perfect?  Are you running YOUR race?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry