Project Description

So excited to share with you my FIRST Diamond Life and Style Podcast.

Here is the transcription of the podcast – you can read along as you listen to my animated storytelling:

Last year my music coach let me in on a juicy life-changing secret I (shockingly) hadn’t heard of before.  For someone who has an avid passion that has led to a wall of self-help & entrepreneurial business books, this little nugget o’ wisdom somehow never crossed my wildflower jewel encrusted path. I only wish I had known about it sooner…

OK! It’s hard to admit it, but I have perfectionistic tendencies – and they have a habit of getting in my way. I’m not a complete perfectionist or obsessive compulsive or anything like that – I just have really powerful multi-dimensional technicolor visions for what I want to create. I am also a Virgo – can I blame it on that?!

When I find myself in circumstances that I ‘m not yet able to pull-off something I vividly dream of, I have often felt overwhelmed and start to look like a deer in headlights. That feeling gets me trapped – like a dog chasing its tail, spinning in circles instead of finding solutions. And I know they are out there, or more profundly, in here (inside of me). I just might not have found them yet.

Many years ago while living in a Zen Buddhist Temple (a colorful story for another time!) I learned about Right Action. It’s the fourth aspect of the Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path To Enlightenment.  Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh says “The basis of Right Action is to do everything in mindfulness.” So, at numerous times I mindfully have found myself unaware of how to get from where I am to where I want to be. I  also have mindfully found myself to feel extremely emotional, anxious, afraid, and overwhelmed to the point of tears. My full-blown awareness might have actually made the whole jamboree a lot more painful, because as people often say “ignorance is bliss.” At those times in an effort to soothe myself – I try to remember this line from a zen sutra – “How can you know the way as you walk, progress is not a matter of far or near, but if you are confused – mountains and rivers will block the way.” Well I’ve been confused and yep, the wise one’s were right – because I have felt like a huge mountain was standing before me, and how the $%#!! was I gonna climb my own personal Mount Everest?!

Being a true artist, an entrepreneur and an original of any kind is a wild, exciting, winding, ever expanding and completely uncertain life. Sign me up! Oh wait, I really didn’t have a choice – because you are who you are – and honestly, one secret about being human is that (like my morbidly honest 7th grade science teacher used to say) the only thing you can count on in life is- death and taxes. That was a jagged little pill for me to swallow at 12 years old.

So back to my perfectionist tendencies (and maybe yours too) – they have stopped me from getting a LOT of things done in my life. There are books of songs sitting in my studio, and piles of unfinished recordings that I swear – you will never hear. Sorry – because honestly they just weren’t good enough. Maybe for someone else, but not for me. There are art projects and short stories and videos and a lot of other things most people would think were brilliant – that I will never ever ever show the world. EVER!

Now of course one has to have their standards!  Not everything Lennon & McCartney wrote was perfect (or was it!). Not everything Kandinsky, Klee, Picasso and Rauschenberg painted or sculpted was pure genius. We have to wonder: what treasures have they kept from their adoring fans?! What beauty has the world never been offered to appreciate because an artist’s mind got in the way of their divine creations?!

Of course there is a long learning curve when it comes to finding your true voice and exposing it to the world. Some people are fine with hanging their dirty laundry out for the world to see (not me). Some people are fine with developing their creative voice as the world painfully watches – and some of those brilliant artists we have obsessed over –  left us before their star was fully ablaze because this process was far too painful (that and the fact that they took a lot of drugs, which never does anybody any good).

So where does it end, how does a creative artist, entrepreneur, inventor or visionary of any kind actually get anything completed? How do we make peace with perfectionism especially if we are awake and aware of our tendencies?! How does the album, symphony, poem, book, sculpture, business idea, coconut-mango souffle or anything else –  actually go from being an idea into a physical reality?

Two words, my friend – two words!

IMPERFECT ACTION!

WHAT!!!

I said – whaaaaaaaaaaaatttttttttttttttttttttt!!!!

What the ($#*&!!!!! IS THAT?! I dont want it to be imperfect – I need it to be PERFECT!!!!

Well, taking imperfect action does NOT mean doing it half-assed, or just winging it! It doesn’t have anything to do with doing things stupidly, or being complete crap – singing off key or anything of the sort. It’s actually just as divine a daily spiritual practice as meditation, working out at the gym, or practicing scales.

Imperfect Action – is about realizing that the official path to perfection is made up of a series of steps, imperfectly perfect ones. It’s about stepping out of your comfort zone and being a risk taker. Making decisions – like finally ordering that freaking softbox lighting system I obsessed over for six months because I couldn’t understand which specs were PERFECT ENOUGH or had the freaking perfect price tag and I got all frenzied up saving this web page and that web page, reading over and over and staring in a haze at pictures and numbers and information and who could ship it to Spain and who couldn’t and then get emotional about being in Europe and comparing this and that till my head was spinning and I realized two hours had passed and I hadn’t gotten anything done – and THAT my friend is what the Buddhists call a “Hell Realm!!!” Been there, done that, got the t-shirt and I am OVER IT!!!!!!

The ultimate truth is that with out Imperfect Action the creative projects and visions will keep piling up till they become massive mountains to climb and raging rivers to cross. Painfully, what I fear most is that if I don’t fully bring them to life, the creative flow that I live for could come to a halt!

So I have been practicing taking Imperfect Action. I haven’t perfected the art of it yet – HAHA! Just kidding! Ideas are brewing. Creative messes are everywhere. Magic is happening. Music is flowing. Art is being created – just “Don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain!”

So my promise to you is that everything I put out in the world for your delight or disgust will be imperfectly created by me, and then perfected by me in the most imperfect way, ‘cuz baby, that’s how I roll.

If you can add this spice o’ wisdom into your rack and cook up some goodness, I wholeheartedly wish for it to support your visions and dreams – so that they can become a physical reality. Let me know in the comments below how imperfect action would transform your life!  If you know someone who wrestles with perfectionism please share this article with them because it’s my mission in life to inspire and support you in realizing your luminous potential.

Much Love!