Shutting Down Perfection
This morning I was warming up on the treadmill next to Dana (my teammate from Mel’s Machines) and CNN was on, talking about the government shutdown. For those of you who don’t live in the United States, our congress is so dysfunctional and entrenched in their own party’s rhetoric, they can’t compromise enough to pay the bills, so parts of our government are currently shut down. But our lovely congressional leaders still get to keep their six figure paychecks no matter how long the shutdown goes on…Hmm…
Anyway, the Republican Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, didn’t realize his mic was on and the cameras were rolling, and had a conversation with another congressman, talking about the best way to spin the conversation about who was to blame for the shutdown.
Oops.
Politicians are always getting caught in a lie, it seems. At election time they roll out their perfect families, and cute dogs on the front lawn of their perfect house, and play this happy music in the background. They all look like Stepford families. And then they say the wrong thing or, even worse, tell the truth about something, and then the media replays the clip for two days straight only this time when they show the Stepford family picture, the picture in in negative so it’s creepy black and white, and they play sinister music in the background. If they could, I’ll bet the news shows would find a way to even make the dog whimper.
“I’d never want to be in politics,” I said. “It takes decades to build this perfect persona and it takes one gaffe to go viral on YouTube and you’re done. Whatever side you’re on it just takes one juicy scandal to bring you down,” I said.
“But think about that,” she said, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand, “if they didn’t try so hard to pretend to always be right and perfect, no one would be clamoring to kick them when they’re down. No one is perfect, so why pretend?”
It’s an interesting point. Personally, I kind of like to hear stories about people making mistakes or getting in trouble; if nothing else it reminds me I’m not alone in messing up.
During my first competition, the one where I lost 50 lbs., I was ALWAYS getting into trouble because, quite frankly, I was always cheating on my diet and lying about it. My then trainer, Daniel, was a total hardass too, and he called me out on everything a person could possibly be called out for. So I can’t tell you how delighted I was when he casually mentioned to me that he wanted to go drinking for Cinco de Mayo and his trainer said no.
HA! HA! You wanted to cheat on your diet, and you got busted!!!!
Childish, I know; I never pretend to be mature. But now that I’m a personal trainer, if one of my clients’ session is particularly humbling for them, I mention some of my own epic fails at booty camp. And (can I tell you?) they LOVED reading the blog post last week where I got in trouble for talking instead of sprinting. And they laugh their ass off when I reenact me dying in pain trying to do a preacher curl while my six-month-pregnant trainer is correcting my form and lifting the weight like it’s nothing.
So I guess my point here is just let go of perfection. People will appreciate you more if you are honest and can admit to being in the wrong sometimes. Now if only congress would read this post….
How about you? Do you struggle with perfection? What are your thoughts about the shutdown?
Lisa 
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