I love being imperfect. I really do.

I must admit, though, that most of my life I wanted to be perfect and I hated my legs. I called them chicken legs – or I’d make the clucking noise and call them “bock bocks.”

I remember in my 20’s when I used to lift weights. I would lift very heavy on my upper body, and I became very big up top.

I used to walk around looking like a funky chicken hating my legs. I would look at my legs and say, “I hate my legs. They’re chicken legs. They’re bird legs. They’re gross.”

Did I do anything to change my legs? Did I spend any time lifting legs in the gym? No.

I was always making fun of myself because I wanted to be perfect. I wanted to be perfect, but yet I didn’t do anything to become perfect.

The truth is, though, that trying to be perfect is exhausting. It’s exhausting because there is no such thing as perfect.

Monitoring yourself all day long and in every conversation you have is exhausting and stressful. When you talk to someone and you try to be perfect so they’ll like you, you end up being tired after only a five minute conversation. You’re so in your head and so stressed out, you just want to take a nap when that conversation is finished.

Stress causes exhaustion. So, really embrace yourself and your imperfections.

Here is how you’re going to do that. I want you to get naked and stand in front of a mirror. Look at your fat belly, your balding head, your lazy eye, your bird legs or whatever you see as your imperfections.

We all have at least one imperfection. We may have a big belly or a funny mole or a receding hairline. Whatever your imperfections are, you need to look at them and say “That’s me. That’s cool. I love me.”

Stop trying to be perfect. There’s no such thing as someone who is perfect. There is nothing in life that is perfect.

Even when you go for the perfect meal, there is always something wrong with it. Maybe the service was bad. You can order what you think is the perfect drink, and then the ice melts and it gets diluted after a few minutes. The perfect flight was great until you realized that the airline bumped you from business class to coach. You go on an amazing Hawaiian vacation and there ends up being a hurricane.

There is nothing perfect except you. As imperfect as you are, that is what perfection really is. We’re such perfect people the way we are. We just need to love ourselves a little bit more.