Do It Imperfectly (But Do It)

Lessons from the world’s most imperfect retreat in the history of retreats

Louise Schriewer, Ph.D.
Two Minute Madness
Published in
2 min readApr 16, 2021

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Photo by Bernard Hermant on Unsplash

Are you sometimes being held back by wanting to do something perfectly? If so, let me share a story with you that might inspire you to do it imperfectly.

Last week, I attended a spiritual retreat; I was searching for a new vision and direction. I’m pretty sure it was one the most imperfect in the history of all retreats. The ideal scenario would be to spend a few days without any electronics by myself in the wilderness, fasting, and asking for guidance.

What happened? It’s 2021, so it was all virtual. If there was any wilderness to be had, it was the urban jungle. I signed up late, so I was running half a day behind. The calls were in the middle of my day, so I always had to jump off before the end to get a few things finished with my business.

And I was doing this in the middle of everything else: coaching current clients, connecting with potential new clients, publishing articles (here’s my latest one about how to make your business stand out from the competition), reviewing an old interview for a book project, spending time with family over dinner, etc.

I was probably breaking every rule in the book on how to do this. But you know what? It may have been imperfect, but my retreat was perfectly imperfect. Despite (or maybe even because of) these limitations, I got a ton out of it. I’m glad I did it. There was something about doing it so imperfectly that felt ideal for 2021.

There’s a lesson here for all of us. Forget perfectionism. Finished is better than perfect. If I wanted to do this retreat right, I wouldn’t have done it at all — and missed out on something wonderful.

As Arthur Ashe so accurately put it:

“​Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”

What is something you could dare to do imperfectly this week?

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I love helping people overcome their struggles and have a joyful life. Professional wizard (I mean, coach…) who used to be a lawyer: workyoulovecoach.com