This past week tears rolled down my cheeks while I peered through my camera viewfinder looking for the perfect moment to snap a photo.

I was working at the Creativity Unleashed Live Retreat on the Big Island of Hawaii. This is an event that I have helped support for the past 4 years now with Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici my sister in law and creator of the Woman Unleashed Movement (for those of you who watched my About Your Big Day Online Interview Series last year, you may remember her).

But, this year the retreat felt different.

Our numbers nearly doubled with 80+ women from all over the world in one room with an energy like never before.

So as I moved around the room for those 4 days capturing these women’s realizations through Amber's painting, journaling and movement practices, I also had my own.

I heard so many stories of joy and pain. Some inspiring, some tragic.

They were real stories that made up the lives of these women. Purely imperfect.

So I realized my own imperfect stories, the ones I’ve buried deep or that I’ve let make me feel small. I also realized my own victories and accomplishments, that I’ve dimmed down and not celebrated! I realized the feelings I’ve ignored or put aside in order to not disrupt the flow, as if life can truly be planned without edit.

But what happens when we don’t address our own truth is that we start to form a new ripple within ourselves that can turn into a wave, and when really ignored, a massive tidal wave inside of us.

And what happens when we don’t celebrate our achievements is that we cannot refuel to then achieve more greatness.

I realized this past week that the real goal in life is not perfection. It's pushing past perfection to achieve what's hard, and what we might fail at over and over again, before we reach our goals.

Perfection does not make someone any more deserving of all the good that life has to offer. We didn’t get put on this planet to be perfect. We are flawed beyond belief.

But, we are always at choice. This element of choice is true freedom for ourselves and for those closest to us.

If there’s someone in this world you need to speak to, do it. It’s either going to make their day that you reached out or give you the answers you need. Maybe both.

If there’s something you have been wanting to do, but keep finding all the excuses in the world not to, then take one tiny step towards it.