We’re all 7’s Looking for 11’s.
Get over it.
In fact, the sooner you make the realization that the “perfect” fill-in-the-blank doesn’t exist, not only will you be much happier, but ironically, you’ll find perfection in what is.
Huh?
An 11 is a false perception of what we think perfection looks like. We’ve all seen magazine covers, or read stories, or watched programs, or viewed commercials, or been brainwashed by advertising that portrays “perfection” a certain way. In bodies, physical appearance, hair color, weight, age, and fashion. In careers, marriages, lovers, vacations, homes, cities, and on and on. Because of this false ideal of what we think our lives (or perfection) look like – we keep blaming ourselves (or others) when our experiences seem to fall short of the myth. We think, “Once I have this 11 (and not these 7’s) my life will be perfect.
But everything and everyone in our lives is simply a reflection of our own stuff we’re working through – our fears, our loves, our hates, our desires, our fantasies, our judgments, our beliefs – so our journeys are always about our meeting our stuff on this playground of life.
Wherever you are there you are.
When I was in my 20’s I said “No!” to a lot of things (including a possible date with Anderson Cooper!) because I kept waiting for my 11 to arrive in the way I thought it should look. It never did. Not in the form of a person or lover or teacher or agent or job or career or achievement. So I wasted a lot of time waiting (and simultaneously complaining, bitching, and comparing-and-despairing) when I could have been experiencing instead.
In hindsight, not only were the 7’s just fine – they were actually all 11’s dressed as 7’s – and had I embraced what they had to offer, I would have experienced perfection. Meaning, I would’ve stopped living in ideas, expectations and agendas. But I kept waiting for the 11 and when that happens, we end up missing everything right in front of us. The potential. The “Aha!”, the experience, the adventure, the realization that everything is here to get us to our next level of understanding. Everything.
For sure, life is about choices and we learn from making them. Or not making them. So we really can’t ever make a “wrong” choice. But what I’m talking about is not delaying our lives or being too scared to live because we have fixed concepts of what we think life is supposed to look like.
Our lives aren’t these concrete, impenetrable, black-and-white, inflexible entities we sometimes make them out to be. They are a vast tapestry of possibilities. Like a spider’s web, there are so many connective threads all leading to the center. They are like tributaries all leading to you.
Ultimately, it’s all potential. But it requires you to pull one thread. Just pull it. Pull the one right in front of you! And start there.
Stop expecting the things you desire to come in a different package. It’s been delivered already. Open it. Experience it. See what it has to teach you.
When you do, you’ll realize that a real 7 is far better than a non-existent 11 any day.