Perfection

‘Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in’ Anthem - Leonard Cohen

Winnicott described the concept of a ‘good enough mother.’ That is to say a child’s caregiver is adequate and does enough. They are not providing a seamless, everlasting or, most importantly, perfect supply of Instagram worthy parenting wins. Yet we do often demand perfection from ourselves as parents, or partners, or workers. A question worth asking yourself is where is the finish line for you? Where is the boundary on how much you will give? If there is no finish line then you never stop, and never give rest to your self. Exhausting.

Cohen’s cracks maybe the beginning of our acceptance for good enough - accepting what we see as a flaw or achieving less today; to keep something back for ourselves and be available tomorrow. . .

Would I recognise the difference between you putting in a good enough effort and keeping something for yourself in comparison to the oppressive drive to be perfect?