It’s okay to be imperfect.

It’s okay to not do everything just right.

It’s okay to be who you are….imperfections included.

The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown brings the importance of imperfection home in this book.  I read Brown’s Daring Greatly last month and it was recommend that I read The Gifts of Imperfection right away.

However, I will admit that I don’t read a lot self-help/self-improvement type of books.  I used to be bookseller for nearly a decade in the 1990s.  The self-help section of the bookstores I worked in were the most popular.  I had an aversion to things that everybody liked back then.  So I dismissed the entire genre as not being worth my time.  Fast forward to nearly two decades later and more life experience under my belt and reading someone like Brene Brown has shown me the value of the genre.

Brown shares her own struggles with shame, worthiness, and courage in the pages of The Gifts of Imperfection.  She outlines a ten-step Wholehearted living philosophy that guides the reader on how to embrace our imperfect selves.  There were many quotes I highlighted in the book.  These two quotes caught my attention:

“If we want to know why we’re all so afraid to let our true selves be seen and known, we have to understand the power of shame and fear.  If we can’t stand up to the never good enough and who do you think you are…then we can’t move forward.”

“Now I understand that in order to feel a true sense of belonging, I need to bring the real me to the table and that I can only do that if I’m practicing self-love. For years I thought it was the other way around: I’ll do whatever it takes to fit in, I’ll feel accepted, and that will make me like myself better.”

People want to be loved and accepted for who they truly are.  This is a fundamental need to being human and it seems to get push aside or dismissed in order to fit into societal expectations and norms.  Brown counteracts that last part of the previous sentence by stating when people are their true selves we will get a healthier and better society.

I read The Gifts of Imperfection in the past two days and highlighted many paragraphs along the way.  I highly recommend this book and becoming our best and truest selves is the greatest gift of all.