One of the most valuable things I think I& #39;ve ever learned - and I think I& #39;ve only actually started learning it in the past year or so - is that imperfection and mistakes do not equal failure or regression. If you treat them instead as growth, surprise surprise: you tend to grow.

This applies to everything - work, hobbies, art, skills, interpersonal relationships. And it seems like such a basic thing, but for a neurotic and anxious perfectionist it& #39;s taken a while to figure it out, and I still often need reminding.

But I& #39;ve been noticing recently that I& #39;ve been looking upon imperfections not as a failure of the entire thing I& #39;ve been working on, but simply as opportunities to do better next time - to hone and improve. Weirdly, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy had something to do with this:

The idea of acknowledging the feelings of anxiety or depression or disappointment without letting it overwhelm me translates really well to other parts of my life - acknowledging mistakes and then improving, rather than letting the mistakes overwhelm any progress or success.

Basically I& #39;ve been noticing I do this more often and it& #39;s something that gives me a lot of joy and peace and I& #39;m quite chuffed. Thanks for coming to my TED talk, please stay home and hydrated.