Perfection. What a perfect word.
Everybody is excited when they hear the word perfect. That means without flaws, with dedicated and as good as it can possibly be. Wow that’s a pretty steep curve mark, perfection. But there has always been one question that has always shadowed me when it comes to perfection. Is it even possible? Is perfection even possible. I mean to be as good as it possibly can be. That implies there is no improvement available. That’s pretty bold, especially if you dedicate your life to achieving perfection.
In today’s world perfection is many individuals benchmark. Some will say they want to be the perfect husband/wife, perfect father/mother, perfect child/sibling, etc. These are all really sweet and amazing to say. But if you look at it in practice that seems really hard.
Perfection in many people’s viewpoint is a destination. I want to be a perfect husband in the future. So I could instantly think of a thousand metrics to keep track of to see if I’m on track to being a perfect husband. Do I buy her flowers, do I spend time with her, do I ensure that she has her own space, do I understand her on a deeper level, etc. These are all things that theoretically you could benchmark for the most part. If you make an assumption on something she is feeling and it’s off, well you probably haven’t honed in on that skill yet. If you make her dinner, but it’s food she hates, well you probably haven’t figured that one out yet either.
But the isn’t really the problem with perfection. Perfection isn’t something you can arrive at. I won’t one day look at myself and say, I’m a perfect husband. Because perfection isn’t a destination, it’s a journey.
And that’s not disappointing, it’s amazing. It allows you to be forgiven, perfection, by definition is unfaltering. Humans falter, we’re made to falter, we’re made to make mistakes, we’re made to learn and grow.
I’ve seen people believe that perfection is a destination only to burn themselves from both ends of the candlestick, go up in flames and smolder. I’ve pushed myself like this before too. Understand the faults, learn to grown, and embrace that perfection isn’t a destination.
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” — Vince Lombardi