My phenomenal friend George Carroll has been talking a lot about perfectionists recently and I adore this conversation! He posted this poem on facebook today and I’m a little in love.

What if control and perfection wasn’t a strongness but a capacity….?

I’ll leave it at that:

The Perfectionist

The perfectionist lives
to make bountiful art…
but is unaware of this gift
and instead, pulls herself apart…

The perfectionist will die
a million and a half deaths…
in attempts to get it right
and to not breathe the wrong breath…

Inside of every perfectionist
lives an artist unseen…
quietly counting down the days
until the perfectionist falls between…

Between the exhaustion of control
and the endless attempts to please…
what lives inside of that bitter cold
only the artist can unfreeze…

The artist can melt the numbness
with her paintbrush of fire…
with brush strokes of light
on her canvas of desire…

And on that glorious day
when the perfectionist falls
she will be re-awakened…
eyes open, now the artist stands tall…

Spreading her wings
and ready for flight…
the artist emerges
and her art is her light…

– by George Carroll

George Carroll is a transformation & change artist. He’s the author of a phenomenal book: The Homeless Motivational Speaker. Check out his brilliance here.