You are the change

Being of service

To the world

Others

 

Requires not a sense of belonging

 

Requisite imperfection, vitality required

Energy from the world’s dark abyss

Bourne out of necessary suffering

Out of disconnection, across boundaries

With vision – granted

 

While being in the world

Seeing the lack of flow

Not fully aligned with the world

You – flutter

 

Vision enacted

Broken it may be

Wounded you remain

But stepping forward

The sun will shine

For others

For your own soul

 

No substitute for the imperfect you.

Perfectionism speaks to a mindset of constant moving, of never arriving, unyielding, and if one ever achieves it, an ultimate prize of a finished state without any flaws or errors. It encourages a disdain for imperfection in ourselves and others.  We get angry with ourselves and others for not meeting the supposed standard. It emanates from a place of: (1) judgement (“As I am now, is not good enough”), and (2) comparison (“There is always something, or someone, better or worse than me”).  Leadership literature is filled with development techniques to help individuals on a pathway to perfection – to fix this, to change that, to cut out those – engendering a life of perpetual unease with ourselves – and to gloss over or even hide those things/experiences that may cause us to appear flawed, imperfect or broken to others. The Japanese concept of wabi sabi, embedded in Zen Buddhism philosophy, conveys a complex set of meanings which can best be summarised as an appreciation of the impermanence, asymmetry and small details in life and everything that surrounds us.  Wabi sabi gives us a more constructive lens for thinking about leadership, and the acceptance of transience and imperfection – a liberation from the caves of opinion and comparison.  Wabi sabi philosophy is also beautifully expressed in a practice of fixing broken pottery with gold called kintsugi. Here, a broken object is carefully mended back together and the cracks are not just repaired with glue, but further enhanced and decorated with gold or silver.  Rather than lamenting over a precious object being broken, the object is not only repaired but made more beautiful in a process.  The so-called imperfection actually enriches the original object, and appears even more beautiful.  Kintsugi is a powerful metaphor for overcoming hardship, trauma, loss and approaching our own perceived imperfections, weaknesses and traits which we may see as undesirable.  Things, and people, are often much stronger and more unique when emerging, or bouncing back, from struggle, suffering or brokenness.  In kintsugi, breakage is an essential part of our true history, and not something to disguise.  We all bear scars from adverse conditions in our lives and our relationships – and this could be our very gifts to the world later on in life, e.g., having overcome social injustice, one might spend part of one’s life fighting for social justice, for looking our for the most vulnerable or marginalized in society, or having come from poverty one may find the connection and strength to help those currently in poverty or our of work – our so-called scars or imperfections in our history/lives, can become our actual gifts to the world.