Get Past Perfect and Rise Up Real.

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Did you know that certain Native American artisans weave small, purposeful mistakes into their blankets?

These master craftspeople include intentional slip-ups in their best work. But why?

Because they believe that the “mistake” is the very space that allows Spirit to move in and out of the fabric.

Take a moment and let that sink in. Then ask yourself …

What if the mistakes you wish you hadn’t made could be openings for Spirit in your life?

If that question freaks you out a little, I understand.

I’m Caroline Garnet McGraw, and I’m a recovering perfectionist. (And workaholic and codependent and people-pleaser. You know, just the usual.)

I’ve spent most of my life in abject terror of making mistakes. But in 2011, I started this blog as an account of the journey to get past perfect and rise up real.

A Wish Come Clear is about the lifelong odyssey that we take to come home to ourselves and each other.

Join us! Receive your free Perfectionist Recovery Toolkit.

The Toolkit includes Getting Real & Letting Go: A Collection of Quotes for Recovering Perfectionists, the 5 Day Goodbye Good Girl Email Challenge, posters, & more!

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What Happens When You Surrender to Stillness: A Story

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It was the best birthday present I could have given myself: an hour to just be. There I was in restorative yoga, lying on my purple mat, posed to surrender to stillness.

In case you haven’t tried it, restorative yoga is a sublime form of deep rest that releases tension on every level.

I love my local studio’s class, but I don’t go much. The poses are deceptively simple, so often I convince myself I could do them at home.

But of course I am a recovering perfectionist and workaholic, so you can imagine the result of that rationalization.

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The Truth About Time Management: You Need to Read with Laura Vanderkam (Plus a Book Giveaway!)

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All of us have the same 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. But why do some of us feel overwhelmed and overburdened, while others feel focused and relaxed? What’s an empowering, realistic way for recovering perfectionists to approach time management?

In this edition of our ongoing You Need to Read Video Series, I address these questions and more with writer, author, and speaker Laura Vanderkam.

Laura is the author of several time management and productivity books, including I Know How She Does It (one lucky commenter will win a copy!), What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and 168 Hours.

Her work has appeared in publications including Fast Company, Fortune, USA Today, and the Wall Street Journal. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and four children, and blogs at LauraVanderkam.com.

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Want To Feel Less Anxious? Reconnect with Your Inner Child

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Dear friend, it’s hard to admit that anxiety is a struggle for you, isn’t it? Your experience of life has been tense and fraught for so long that it seems normal. You want to feel less anxious, but it seems like an impossible dream.

I get it, I really do.

I started twirling my hair compulsively when I was in kindergarten. At school there were so many things to learn, so many people to please. When all of that felt hard to handle, I’d wrap strands of my brown hair around my fingers.

I’d twirl my hair up tight and then let it go, over and over. In fact, I self-soothed this way so much that I actually learned to write left-handed. (Since I was born right-handed, I twirled with my right hand and picked up pencils with my left.)

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