Not making
the perfect the enemy of the good,
Is the way
to get life right as we know we should,
Close
enough is good enough—I’m sure you’ll agree,
Good enough is good enough—easy as
can be.
Perfectionism
is a nemesis, a taskmaster that’s hard,
It has a
way about it that ensures our lives are marred,
Instead we
can just as easily work with far less dread,
Soon as we take off the pressure
and put it straight to bed.
***
One of the biggest problems we
make of life is making it harder than it has to be.
Why do we expect perfection of
ourselves and other people? Why is it that we need to always meet or exceed the
strict standards we set for ourselves? Many of our ‘standards’ are higher than
they need to be.
Where Does Our Perfectionism Come From?
It’s a good question, isn’t it?
When did we become such hard-to-satisfy taskmasters?
The choice for realism and to
achieve to a satisfactory level is the wisdom of someone who has nothing to
prove to anyone else. This freedom from perfectionism is freedom from a special
sense of anxiety. Having perfectionist traits reveals something deeper about us
that invites exploration.
Sometimes we have lofty goals for
ourselves, as if we want to impress someone. Perhaps it’s a father or mother,
another family member, or an important mentor. Some of these lofty goals come
from childhood dreams. Sometimes these dreams compel us in healthy ways, and
other times they don’t.
Other reasons for perfectionism
are more extrinsic. We were always expected to achieve highly, and, now that we
are on our own, we cannot break loose of these onerous demands that have always
weighed us down.
Wherever the perfectionist streak
comes from it’s hard to break.
Accepting ourselves as
perfectionists is an important step. Acceptance needs to be achieved before we
can gradually turn the cogs of change. Knowing where our perfectionism comes
from is important.
***
Good enough is good enough in
life. We don’t need to be perfect to do well. We don’t even need to be good or
even average at everything. We can even afford to be poor, weak, and even
pathetic at some things.
Real freedom in life comes when we
are relaxed and realistic in our goals. Wisdom rejects perfectionism as a folly
forcing happiness in life. Happiness is never forced.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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