unrealistic social comparisons.
There are many areas
of life where precision
and impeccably high
standards are needed,
something Lynne is
quick to emphasise –
having an engineer,
surgeon or pilot let their
standards slip is the last
thing we need, after all.
But for most aspects of
everyday life, the drive for
perfectionism is relentless, exhausting
and can be deeply damaging. Operating
from a mindset where nothing is ever
good enough can waste time, make you
tough to work and live with, and even
have quite serious health repercussions.
“Physically and emotionally, all
of this extra work is creating things
like depression, anxiety, sleeplessness,
migraines and asthma,” says Lynne.
“Being critical and beating yourself
up is really not a good place to be.”

Accepting ‘ish’
It’s something she knows first-hand.
“When I was reading all of this
information, I thought, ‘Hang on,
this has been me!’” she says, recalling
moments of being afraid to publish
a website, send a newsletter or share
photos. “I wasted a lot of time and
energy trying to make things perfect
before I shared them with the world.”
What she proposes in her new book is
a little less perfection, and a whole lot
more ‘ish’. What to be just a suffix at the
end of words has more recently taken on
its own meaning. What time should we
meet? Six-ish. How are you feeling
today? Okay-ish.
Adopting ‘ish’ is about relaxing our
standards and being happy when things
are near enough. It’s about flexibility,
sharing our work with the world even
if it’s not perfect and putting less effort
into things that aren’t meaningful.
“Give attention to the things that
matter and ‘ish’ the rest,” Lynne says.
Throughout her travels, she has taken
inspiration from how other parts of the
world see things. “Japanese culture for
example, where we might think

( (

‘I say we need to

care more about less.

Focus on relationships

and spending time

with precious people’

‘Being

critical

and beating

yourself up is

really not a

good place

to be’

things. “The fact is; we spend too much

time on things that don’t matter. I say we

need to care more about less. Focus on

things like relationships, friendships and

spending time with precious people.

That’s important stuff. Maybe less time

vacuuming or ironing my underwear.”

Perfectly imperfect

Embracing ‘ish’ means recognising

the parts of life that don’t need to be

perfect, and directing that time and

energy into things that bring fulfilment.

everything would be about precision,

is actually really good with the idea of

imperfection. They love the concept of

wabi-sabi, which is about accepting the

natural imperfection in everything.”

Choose to care

A common misconception is that

embracing ‘ish’ means embracing low

standards, or something Lynne has

termed “the crap-ification of everything.”

Rest-assured, that is not the case. It’s

simply about caring about the right