We all strive for perfection and yet we all can never achieve it. Fleeting moments of perfection is all we could ever hope for and therefore, that should be what we seek. I always thought I could be and should be perfect…all the time. For some time, I never allowed myself to be less than ideal and would often criticize myself for those times when I felt like I had done less than 100%. Maybe it was because I did very well in school and seeing the word “perfect” on a paper or test somehow stuck with me so it became an unwritten goal of mine. Never did I realize that the goal set would never be reached. I attempted to accomplish that sense of perfection until I was so frustrated that it was easier to give up. It is ok to admit it…we all do it. I told our youngest son after his game last night that even though he may have made a mistake, the ONLY reason he would want to change it is because it ended badly. If he had been called safe, then no harm done. Maybe you don’t swing so wide as you round third base, but your message is really brought to your attention when it hits you upside the head. When you error. When you falter. Just as we have fleeting moments of perfection, we must also accept fleeting moments of imperfection. Yet, for some reason, we continue to live there longer than in those moments that were perfect. Why? The failures should have no longer of a life than the successes, but we give them more “air time” and dwell on them so much that they can develop a life of their own. Almost two years ago, I was asked if I had lost 28 pounds and not 2, would I consider that a success or failure. Immediately, I said failure. I saw what I DIDN’T do, not what I DID do. That is what we all forget. Perfection may come to us from time to time, but it never stays. You know it. Just the same, imperfection never should be allowed to live for long, yet we do. We allow it to eat at us like an infectious disease and we could prevent it from spreading if we just realized that as much as we were the creator of it, we also carry the cure for it. No one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, sometimes on the biggest of stages, too. Remind yourself that it could be worse. You come to realize what you would change only because your desired outcome wasn’t achieved. If you were successful, then you wouldn’t change a thing. Going all out and giving it everything you have is nothing to be ashamed of and is a goal for everyone, regardless of what you seek. Learn to grow with each mistake so that when that opportunity comes up again, you will be better prepared to handle it. Perfection is a figment that you create and is merely another opinion of what you should attempt to achieve, but you also have to remember that none of us live there. We just stop in for a visit now and again.
Michelle Homme 2012 ©
