The Best You
What is perfection? According to Oxford Dictionary, it is a
state of "having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or
characteristics; as good as it is possible to be." A person can seek
perfection in many areas of life - to have a perfect partner, a perfect job, a
perfect body, a perfect bank and investment account, a perfect house in a
perfect neighbourhood in a perfect city in a perfect country in a perfect
world. You get the idea.
Before you accuse me of suggesting a goal that is not achievable,
my personal take on perfection is functional. If it is critical and life
endangering for something to be perfect, then fine. By all means, go for it.
But, if something is not as good as it is possible to be and it is not a deal
breaker, then I don't think there is an absolute need for you to cultivate and
apply your laser sharp discrimination, efficiency and analytical tendencies
then. That is unless you live in Utopia… which you don't. So, practical
perfection is totally achievable as a dominant purpose in life for you.
Tips to Become the Best You
A Sense of What Could Be and An Honest Sense of What is Really Happening
To strive for perfection, you will need to have in your mind
what could be possible. Activate that mind of yours. Brainstorm and identify
all the best qualities in something that you desire or require. This is the
first step.
The second step is to discern what is the current situation
so that you can bridge the gap between the ideal and the existing reality.
Create Efficient and Effective Systems
If something is not perfect, changes are required. Makes
things more efficient and effective. In other words, make things better and
quicker.
Be Practical About Perfection
My take is that it is impossible for something to be perfect
all the time. Unless you live in Utopia. For example, you may have multiple
deadlines at work which cannot be moved or delegated to someone else. Let's
assume that you cannot walk out of the job or call in sick. If you fulfill your
life purpose of being perfect in every single task of yours,
You wouldn't have time to sleep. This is really bad as it
affects your health and your ability to maintain your perfection at work.
You wouldn't have time for your family and friends. Unless
your partner is super understanding and the crazy work is a one-time thing,
he/she may break up with you or divorce you. Seriously, is work that important
to you? What about having the perfect family?
No one really cares a fuck about the perfect work of yours.
I would like to think, although I could be wrong, that if the person receiving
the work had known about all the time that you had spent on the work, he/she
would have told you "No. I don't need it to be perfect. Just make it good
but not perfect."
I hope you get my point of being functional and practical
about perfection. Not just in work, but also in relationships, in money matters
and in most things… unless you want to kill yourself of course.
Watch Out For these Potholes Along the Journey
Overanalysing Something
In seeking perfection, you may have the tendency to
overanalyse and focus on the smallest details of something. You may turn a
matter over and over in your head, viewing it from endless angles with no
definite outcome or conclusion. You may end up feeling worried, stressed, tired
and repeat the same process again the next day. Depending on the situation and
circumstance, your fine discrimination and analytical tendencies may or may not
be helpful. It is like using a laser beam to cut a piece of paper for arts and
craft when just using your hands to tear up the paper would be enough. Keep the
big picture in mind. Be cautious of overdoing something when it's not required!
Overanalysing and Criticising Yourself and Others
Again in your quest for seeking perfection, you may apply
your fine discrimination and analytical abilities to yourself. You may have
this ideal of yourself and where you are right now. For example, you may say to
yourself "A decent or reasonable person who is in my situation would do
XYZ. But actually, XYZ isn't what I would do in this case because of ABC.
Therefore, I am not a good person for not wanting to do XYZ." Beware of
bashing yourself over your own standards.
Love yourself for what you are, not what you could be.
You may think that others have the same standard as you. The
reality is that not everyone do so! Your yardstick could be mission impossible
for a certain situation or circumstance. God bless the people or objects that
you deal with! But then again, without your high standards, it is likely that
the world would be mediocre!