The School of Greatness - 519 Be Patient with Imperfection

Episode Date: August 4, 2017

"Don't be perfect. Be patient." - Lewis Howes If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/519

Five Minute Friday. Don't be perfect. Be patient. I saw a quote earlier today by a guy named Ray Bradbury from The Illustrated Man. He said, we're all fools all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think I'm not a fool today. I've learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday, but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and lived accordingly.

I've been putting so much on myself. I've been putting so much of having to look good and be perfect and say the right things in relationships and do what I'm supposed to do and do what other people want me to do. And, you know, feel like in order to fulfill something I'm supposed to be here to do that I've got to, that I'm obligated to follow through on certain things. And I don't know if anyone's ever experienced this, where you feel like you want to do something great. You feel like you want to be great, be perfect at something, relationships, your career,

your business. You want it to look a certain way. And you feel like you've got to continue doing things a certain way to please others and to, again, not look like you're not perfect. And lately, I have not been perfect. I've been the opposite in a lot of ways. And it's been a challenge because I don't want others to know that about me. I don't want others to know that, you know, I don't have it all figured out. But honestly, I feel like I have things figured out less and less each day. And I feel like the more I know, the more I realize that

there's so much more to be learned and so much more to understand. And I want to tell you guys that it's okay if you're not perfect. It's okay if you don't have it all figured out. It's okay if you make mistakes and if you mess up royally. And it's okay if you're feeling hurt or frustrated or you're experiencing some type of pain or confusion or if you're stressed out or you're uncertain or you're unclear, it's okay. You don't need to be perfect. You just got to be patient with yourself. You got to be patient with yourself. And I was at a talk with Rob Bell. He was giving a talk here in Los Angeles and he was on the podcast previously and I had an incredible time listening to him and interviewing him. And during this talk, you know, he talked about,

he talked about a lot of things and I recommend going to check out his tour if he comes to a city near you. But he was mentioning about how the universe is made up of roughly 94% dark matter. And scientists say that this dark matter, these black holes and all this matter in the universe, they don't really know what it is and they don't know why it's there, but they know that the universe, the world, us would not be able to survive and thrive without 94% of the universe being dark matter. And he made this correlation with our lives. You know, there's always things that confuse us or that these really horrible things that have happened to us in our childhoods and our past and our family's past and our grandparents.

There's been wars. There's always something that seems like it's this dark matter in our lives, this darkness, this uncertainty, this uncertainty, this unclear feeling. And it can be extremely scary and unsettling and emotionally traumatic. At least I speak for myself when that is the case for me sometimes. And sometimes it seems like it's so overwhelming and that all I want to do is curl up in a ball and cry and not want to see anyone or do anything ever again. You know, there's times where it feels like that.

And again, I don't know if you can relate to that feeling or if you've ever experienced that. But when he referenced it to our lives, you know, he said the universe is made up of 94% dark matter, but we would not be able to thrive without that. Even though we don't know what it is, we know that we would not be able to thrive without it being there. And even though we don't know why these experiences happen to us and why there's uncertainty and why there's pain and suffering and frustration, even though we don't know

why we experience that in our lives, we know when we tell people and we reflect back on it that we would not be where we are today without that dark matter in our lives, without that uncertainty, that unclearness, that trauma that experience when we are children that was traumatic, but it actually shaped us into being the loving human beings we are today and having the gifts that we have today and serving others the way we serve today. we have today and serving others the way we serve today. So take a moment today and recognize that there's going to be dark matter in your life. There's been dark matter and it's probably going to continue to be dark matter. And it's okay because you don't have to be perfect. You do not have to be perfect. You just need to be patient with yourself.

Continue to ask the questions. Continue to expand yourself, to grow, to serve others, to live bigger, to think bigger, to deepen your humility, your gratitude, and do the best you can today. That's it. Don't try to be perfect today. Just try to give your best and be patient with yourself. This is 5-Minute Fridays, guys. I hope you enjoyed this, and thank you so much for listening.

We do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Every Monday and Wednesday, we've got powerful interviews where my goal is to bring you some of the most inspiring human beings in the world to educate and share their stories and give you some inspiration about how to achieve greatness in your life. On Fridays, I do this. I give a five-minute, roughly five-minute message, which I like to share and share what's opening up for me in my life. And my goal is to bring you some clarity or some perspective or some inspiration for the day. I hope you enjoyed this. If you did, please share it with your friends over on Facebook or Twitter or anywhere on social media. Email a friend, you know, tell a friend in the next conversation that you have that you're listening to the School of Greatness podcast and have them download it on their phones and check it out. It's because of you that I'm able to

do this. It's because of you that I'm able to build a community and share these interviews and these episodes with people. So thank you for what you do. I love you guys. Thank you guys very much for listening to this episode of Five Minute Fridays. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.