This blog post is part of The Business Yogi series – inspiration and thoughts for business based on the philosophy, principles and practices of yoga.

 Do you consider yourself a perfectionist? Do you find it hard to decide when a piece of work is done – when it is ‘good enough’?

If so, then you are not alone. Many entrepreneurs have a strong perfectionist trait. In a sense this is a good quality to have. You want others to value your work and want your clients to be happy. But perfectionism has a tricky side too. The side that keeps you working long into the night when no-one but you would notice the extra work you have done. The side that neglects social commitments because you ‘need’ to do that seventh re-write of the report. The side that uses perfectionism to avoid doing work you find difficult such as calling a potential client or sorting out your finances.

At a recent CUBELUNCH at co-working and innovation space THECUBE, Nathalie Nahai from web design and psychology company We Make Them Click talked about a strong link between how our parents viewed perfectionism and our own. Many perfectionists had a perfect parent that they learnt from and subconsciously are trying to emulate and please. Others had a chaotic parent and being perfect is a way of distancing themselves from this. Either way it is clear that our relationship with perfectionism is a complicated one.

In yoga, we look at the idea of perfectionism in a slightly different way. In Anusara Yoga, the type of yoga I practice, we focus a lot on ‘perfect’ alignment as it gives a solid foundation in poses allowing protection from injury and flow and energy in our practice. But ‘perfection’ in asanas or poses is not something to fight for or struggle against your body. The Sanskrit word for perfection is purnatva.  Literally translated this means ‘fullness in the moment’. Perfection is a yogic sense therefore means doing the very best you can do whatever your mental or physical state at that moment, on that day.

Purnatva means that each moment, even the ones when we seem to be failing, is perfect as long as we are being as full as we can be in that moment. Some days are harder than others and the joy of purnatva is that it teaches us to be OK with ‘imperfection’ while still striving to be the best we can be.

Namaste.