Expecting Perfection

Expecting perfection leaves your expectations imperfect.

Grasshopper Notes are the writings from America's Best Known Hypnotherapist John Morgan. His podcasts contain his most responded to essays and blog posts from the past two decades. 

Find the written versions of these podcasts on John's podcasting site: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1628038

"The Grasshopper" is the part of you that whispers pearls of wisdom that  seem to pop into your mind from out of the blue. John's essays and blog posts are his interpretations of these "Nips of Nectar." Others have labeled his writings as timeless wisdom. 

Most of the John's writings revolve around self improvement and self help. They address topics like:

• Mindfulness
• Peace of mind
• Creativity
• How to stay in the present moment
• Spirituality
• Behavior improvement

And stories that transform you to a wider sense of awareness that presents more options. And isn't that what we all want, more options? 

John uploads these podcasts on a regular basis. So check back often to hear these podcasts heard around the world. Who wants to be the next person to change? 

Make sure to order a copy of John's new book: WISDOM OF THE GRASSHOPPER – 21 Days to Creativity. These mini-meditations take you inside where all your creative resources live. And you'll come out not only refreshed but recommitted to creating your future. 

It's only $16.95 and available at BLURB.COM at the link below. https://www.blurb.com/b/10239673-wisd...

Also, download John's FREE book INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change. It's available at John's website  https://GrasshopperNotes.com

Transcript

Expecting Perfection

I had a client session with an aspiring poet many years ago. Her name was Emily.

It’s not often that you get to witness someone’s dreams oozing out over just an hour’s lunch, but there it was in full view for anyone willing to observe and inquire about.

Emily was a college student/waitress who traveled with pastel pencils, pens and a note book. She was artistic but called herself a poet/writer. She wore the uniform of the budding artist but she didn’t know it was a uniform yet.

Folks like Emily are easy to spot and easy to dismiss, but you do so at the expense of your own enrichment.

Ask anyone about their hopes, dreams and aspirations and you'll make a new friend. More importantly, you help keep the conduit open between them and their creative self.

Emily was discovering her creativity and wasn't sure how to apply it yet. That didn’t make her any different than most people of her age. In fact, it didn’t make her any different than people of any age. Here's what I witness in many people seeking creativity: burying your creative self with expectations of perfection that impede its progress.

These expectations serve as steel walls that creativity can't fully scale. The sheer force of creativity will allow some of it to permeate these walls – enough to let us know that something more powerful than our expectations is present.

But, expecting perfection leads to self doubt, which leads to atrophy, which leads to lethargy. This progression contains a lot of starts and stops until we just shut down.

This self doubt is fed by our condemnation of not reaching expectations. The recurring thought is “I'm not enough.” Or using the modern day term, we suffer from "Imposter Syndrome."

Expecting perfection is self-imposed pressure to measure up to a photoshopped ideal. It’s tough to compete with an enhanced expectation.

The way to give expectation the heave-ho and let creativity flow is to just stop acting.

Even the greatest actors of our time can't recreate the realness of an episode of “Cops.”

Acting out our expectation to be perfect keeps creativity bottled up and its secret message never gets read.

When you drop your "I have to be perfect act," you automatically let go of expectations and discover the eye of creativity. You begin to see things in a different light and your creations come out unexpectedly.

When you release the pressure of expectation, you unleash your creative self and rediscover the enthusiasm of an Emily.

All the best,

John