Perfection
Hello, my name is Emily and I'm a recovering perfectionist.
I wrote about confidence recently and I have to say, and remind myself, really, that it's a daily practice. I have to remind myself to be confident. Which is weird. 'Cause if I'm confident in myself and my work, wouldn't I just feel it without having to think about it?
Not necessarily. I am confident in a lot of my abilities, but I often have doubts. We all do and should; that's how we learn and grow and become better people. If I knew and was perfect at everything, then I won life, right? Game over, I'm done. That's how it works, right?!
A lot of my doubts come from my perfectionism. When I was a kid, I was OCD levels of perfectionist. I'm not that bad anymore, and even love to embrace the beauty of imperfections now. But yeah... I still like to strive for perfection, and I get upset if I'm not living up to my expectations.
For example: when I first learned to sew, I remember laying out a pattern and for the life of me I could not get it to lay flat without bubbling up and distorting. It was miniscule; off by maybe a millimeter. I hadn't even cut anything, and I was already convinced it was ruined and crying over it. Now, after more than 20 years sewing experience, I barely even make sure the grainline is straight before I start cutting. Partly because my muscle memory knows it all by now, partly because I know it makes an imperceptible difference in the finished product, but mostly because worrying about perfection on that level makes the overall quality of my life go down.
That sounds insane, right? But that's how I've gotten better about perfectionism. I've not given it up. I've just redefined it. And prioritized it. Perfect isn't completing a task so that every aspect of it is done to perfection with a perfect final product. That's stressful and impossible.
Perfect is completing a task so that my life isn't controlled by it, and therefore, my overall quality of life is closer to perfect.
I can't be perfect at everything, nor do I want to be. And I know my life won't ever be perfect. But I think one of the most important lessons I've ever learned was how to prioritize my perfectionism. I'm so grateful I'm not the same little girl freaking out over pattern layout. But I’m also glad I went through that phase, learned how to do things perfectly, and then learned what I could ease up on and how to do so.
My products aren’t perfect. They’re never going to be; in fact, I’ve designed the collection around this concept. They are beautiful, high-quality, lovingly produced, perfectly imperfect, unique pieces. And because the clothes don’t have to be painstakingly perfect, the entire business can be closer to perfect. That’s my strategy… broad, over-arching perfection.
