August 7th, 2017

Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien. (The perfect is the enemy of the good.) Voltaire

Photo by Kaitlyn O'Brien

​In June of this year I traveled to California to take a five-day Yoga for Athletes Teacher’s training. The training was held at Multiversity 1440 and was taught by Sage Rountree. As part of the training we spent some time discussing each of our goals as yoga teachers. This dialogue resurrected my own self-postponed idea of wanting to publish a yoga website. I’ve had this idea for quite a long time yet still it was not a reality – why? For one thing I am completely technologically challenged. But on a deeper level my pattern of wanting to be "perfect" I'm sure was a factor. 

Sage Rountree offered this concept of not letting perfect get in the way of good enough and it really resonated. Many of us can roadblock ourselves when we mistakenly approach our ideas, projects, or even yoga poses from this preconceived bias of “perfection.” Most people, places, things are not perfect and nor do they need to be. Progress rather than perfection is a much better plan. Skills like problem solving, trial and error lead us forward. Most of the time we take a few steps forward and a few steps back. We learn, we explore, we investigate, we grow.
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Practice makes us perfect (or good enough)… B.K.S. Iyengar said “Change leads to disappointment if it’s not sustained. Transformation is sustained change and it is achieved through practice." So we practice. We practice and work on the things that intimidate or challenge us on and off the mat and we transform.

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