Thought for the Day: Perfection is a Lie

There are lots of moments in life (when I have a slice of plain pizza in NJ, enjoy a sunset into the ocean, meet an amazing woman, or finish a particularly ego-driven project) I when I take a breath and think: “Perfect.” And, immediately I know I have entered in a situation of half-truth akin to explaining my political and spiritual views or saying aloud if that dress makes you look fat or not.

See, my religious and political views are intertwining, often contradictory. experiences that are not quite reducible to word. And, if they are reducible to words, they require volumes with appendices and work books. Diagrams are really needed. BIG convoluted diagrams. When I say I am a bhakti yogi following Vaishnavite Hinduism, or Sanatana Dharma with a heavy emphasis on the love teaching of Jesus Christ and apathea of Roman Stoicism it is a gross over-simplification. I am trying hard to reach an explanation, but falling short. My political views are way more convoluted, and will not be discussed. When I Say I am a Hindu, I am both telling the truth, AND ignoring a giant swatch of spiritual reality. As Rachel Bloom would say, “it’s more nuanced than that.”

The process is the same when we attribute perfection for anything.  We are ignoring that item, idea, or personal exists in spacetime and bares with it the liabilities and weakness of existence. And, when we strive for perfection, we set ourselves up for one of three things: guaranteed failure, self-delusion, or imprecise language usage.

Wendesday is a time for being in the middle. The beginning is over, the end is kind of on the horizon, but not yet here. Wednesday is a good day to conjure up ideas of perfection and then cast them aside. This year I will have a lot to write about perfection, in flight adjustments, and Wednesdays.

Perfection is unattainable for many reasons, but there is a better goal: Excellence. Excellence is many things, but today, between you and me, let’s call define it as “the achievement of significant results.” We get to Excellence in many ways, and it is not guaranteed, but we can get there.

Set your standards high, but not impossibly high. Set your goals to shine above, but not an impossible shine. Set a course for excellence today.  Dedicate yourself to constant improvements, the raising of standards, the following of goals, and the advancement of  your skills and the quality of what you contribute to the world and attain from the world.  Be complicated, be paradoxical, be FULLY HUMAN, but be excellent.

indeed, do not fault yourself or others for being imperfect.  If you embrace perfection as a goal, you will live in a constant state of judgement and disappointment rather than living for the excitement of improving.