If you had a chance to read last month’s MMMU, you’ll know between then and now I had a bit of a major life event…I got married. It was an amazing weekend full of all of the people that we love, and the wedding day itself was one that I’ll always remember.
After the wedding, I heard my wife (still getting used to saying that) tell someone that it had been a perfect day. I agreed with her, but it made me think about the difference between something being perfect and going perfectly. We all want the former, and chase the later because we think we need the later to get the former. But we don’t.
Let me explain.
When something goes perfectly, everything happens as we think it should. All of our plans unroll exactly as expected. For our wedding day, that would have meant that our organized timeline would have happened exactly as we thought it would. We wouldn’t have started the ceremony late, tossed out the bouquet toss, or forgotten an important toast during dinner (we put it in during the dancing).
If our goal was for the day to go perfectly, we would have been disappointed. Luckily, our goal was for it to be perfect. For that to happen, all we had to do is release our attachment to our expectations. In this case, you accept what happens for what it is. Sure, we planned and prepared for everything to go smoothly, but the most important step we took was understanding that for a perfect day, we just had to smile and enjoy the moments for what they were.
Whether you are getting married or planning out your business or in a customer meeting, definitely put the effort and attention in so things can go perfectly. But once you understand that nothing will actually go perfectly, you’ll be able to see the perfection in what is.
We found that it made for a much better wedding experience. And it makes for a much happier, peaceful, and (ironically) productive way to live.