Perfection

Some of us (Ok, me, and others like me…), were conditioned to believe that a perfect outcome is possible. Whatever the field, perfection is something we must strive for.

It’s an idea that won’t go away. It’s the ideal twin to the other utopian world view – doom. Doom and perfection both drive us to achieve, but with a heavy cost.

That cost is the delusion that striving for perfection causes success. The same delusion that equates success with avoiding doom.

It’s not easy to let go of perfection. Some possible pathways:

• Define ‘good enough’.
• Weigh what’s perfect in one aspect of life against the carnage it causes in other directions.
• Be satisfied – dissatisfaction that things aren’t perfect corrodes life itself.
• Accept complexity and respect limits.
• Get some humility – there’s always a person with a better perfect thing; perhaps you’re too scared to go & look.
• Celebrate what there is.

Do this and you might find reality has been perfect all along.