PERFECTIONISM
noun
1.
refusal to accept any
standard short of perfection.
While the idea of
perfectionism might sound to come from a superior being, it has secretly become
the elastic obstacle that keeps you down. Perfectionism, in its essential
sense, is an unreasonable storm to get everything absolutely right. This makes
it difficult, for all of us, to ultimately produce anything to start with.
Our sickness of
perfectionism stretches our world of noble visions and mediocre reality, so far
wide and open, that pursuing anything with a pinch of error feels like a sin.
Our sense of perfectionism doesn’t just lie in our love lives, but at all our
curved corners. Our problems do not ultimately arise as lie in our reckless
tendencies to under-budget for the difficulties of achieving it.
The right target for
our self-criticism is our premature perfectionism, which in no sense is useful
to us as a species. Our accurate allowance for time and effort is dependent on
a proper grasp of the inherent difficulty of any task. If we fully recognize something to be exceptionally
difficult, we don’t panic with our first attempts going in vain. We also don’t mind
if our first efforts are weak, or if the progress is slow. It’s difficult, but
that’s something we already knew. Lofty standards only become a problem when we
think that something might and should be substantially easier than it turns out
to be. But, this is rarely the case. When we study our own struggles as the
signs of our shortcomings rather than as an inevitable part of a long journey
called success. For, success is not a destination, but a lengthy process in
which you struggle, improve and conquer your shortcomings.
Perfectionism is a
problem only if we’re not ready to struggle. On the contrast, the perfectionism
can very well slide in, if one is willing to struggle and improve on his
mistakes over an extended period. We should realise that our great ambitions
and over expectations to achieve them in a very little time are the biggest curse. For say, when we imagine
writing a good novel in next couple of months, or have enough bank balance to
retire by the age of thirty, or have worked the problems of marriage in its
entirety—we inescapably fail—fall flat on our face.
Our perfectionism starts to affect us when we ignore on how hard others had worked to become something we all can aspire to be. We ignore their sufferings before they realized their ideas of perfection.
In a better world, its society’s culture would endlessly draw attention
to the first drafts and hidden labors of others and properly inform us the true horrors of
getting closer to perfection—doing anything that’s worth doing. We would not
then be impatient sickly perfectionists, rather we would be an exploration of excellence. The problem isn’t around
aiming high and achieving perfection, but it’s that we don’t have an accurately
rescuing idea of what perfection really takes, whose answer, more than often,
is a lot.
What do you think of perfectionism? Comment below.
