Sandi L. Boucher (Red Thunderbolt, Seine River First Nation) presents a short personal-video reflection on the idea of “perfect.” She frames perfection two ways: (1) self-acceptance—being the best version of yourself now and recognizing growth across decades, and (2) the harmful pressure some place on themselves to be flawless. Using personal anecdotes (lost items, cooking mistakes) she argues mistakes are normal, humorous, and essential for learning; she urges kinder self-talk and to "level up" rather than chase perfection. The month’s personal-power principle reiterated: “Be your best self, always. If you fail, do the next task, conversation or day better.”
Chapters
Foreign. I miss my air conditioned condo dam. Hi everybody, it's Sandy Boucher here once again. I'm Red Thunderbolt, woman of the loon clan, a proud member of Seine river first nation in Northern Ontario. And I'm coming to you today from my brand new summer office. Why? Because you guys watch me melt during the Facebook lives I was doing for my book launch. So this room is in the back part of my house. It tends to stay a little cooler, which hopefully means I can get some more work done. If this doesn't work, I'm going to take it as a hint that creator's telling me I should take the summer off. But I digress. We have a principle to talk about today and a really important teaching I want to share with you, even though it may be hard for some of you to hear. So before I get into that, let's do a little refresher of what this month's personal power principle is. And here it is. Be your best self, always. If you fail, do the next task, conversation or day better. Now today we're going to talk about a word that causes a lot of stress for a lot of people. And that word is perfect. Now it really depends how you look at that word. There are two sides to this feather. Just like with everything. For one, I am 57 years old and I believe with all certainty that I am a perfect 57 year old Sandy. I know so much more than 27 year old Sandy did and nothing compared to 77 year old Sandy. If I'm blessed enough to be able to live that long, I accept that I don't know everything, that I have so much more to learn. And, and that by making mistakes, that's usually the most effective way to learn. So that's one way to look at perfection and being perfect. It's the other side of the feather that's going to cause an issue here. And that's all those people that think they have to be perfect, that making a mistake is the worst thing that can happen. And this is the disclaimer, guys, if you have trauma in your past, if you were in an abusive relationship, then you have learned that a mistake could be physically threatening, it could be life threatening. But part of your healing is giving yourself that freedom to make mistakes. My mistakes are hilarious. They're often the best part of my day. But you know what? It comes down to what your self talk is. If you make a mistake and the voice in your head goes, oh my God, you're so stupid, why'd you do that then? You better own that you're now officially abusing yourself. And that needs to change. And I used to do that. I come at this from experience, and every now and then, if I've been hanging around with the wrong kind of people, those phrases can pop into my head. And you know what happens? As soon as I hear it, it's like, no, I'm not being stupid. I was rushing. Or, no, I'm not being stupid, I'm tired. No, I'm not being stupid. I'm hungry and I need to take a break and go eat something. Remember the teach other people how to treat you well. This is an example of how you speak to yourself is going to be how other people treat you. So make your mistakes. It's how you learn. And like I said, they're hilarious. I have a notorious habit of losing stuff, like my phone or my day book or my my pen. And my best friend actually pointed out something that I had never realized. And again, if I had been sensitive about making a mistake, I wouldn't have even heard him. But all he said was, look under Pardon. I have a habit of just dropping things on my desk and they land on top of each other. I guarantee you, if I'm missing my day book or my phone, it is under whatever I just dropped on my desk. And now I can't see it, which is why it's lost. Is that a mistake? I don't think so. It's just a habit I have, and it's kind of hilarious. I get to laugh at myself as I dig out my phone or my day book, and that's so much nicer. So make a mistake. I have made some horrible mistakes in the kitchen. I literally made a meal once that the dog literally would not eat. Did it kill me? Is that a threat? No, it's hilarious. So there you have it, my friend. One more time, the principle for this month. Be your best self always. If you fail, do the next task, conversation, or day better. It's not about perfection, my friend. It's about leveling up. Be better than you were yesterday. No more. Try more things. Have more experience. Forget about perfection. Just level up. Until next week. I love you. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye.
