Last week, my sister was teasing me about my poor English in a text I sent. I countered, claiming that not everyone could be as perfect as she was, and this was her reply,

“Perfection is something that cannot be attained, only strived for.”

I had no comeback, so I let our conversation end there, but this got me thinking about perfection.

Perfection seems to be a controversial topic. There are some who are of the same viewpoint as my sister, they believe we can only pursue perfection but never achieve it. But this begs the question, why are we aiming for something we can never reach? Surely our time would be better spent elsewhere. Others think that perfection is something you can accomplish, it just takes practice and patience. And some view perfection to be the enemy of progress.

Honestly, I don’t know which camp I lie in, perfection can be a very subjective thing. My view of perfection is deeply linked with a goal I set or a standard that I am aiming for; the attainability of this can vary significantly depending on the task. For me, striving for perfection should ultimately be about striving for growth and improvement, however, this is not always the case. There are many trappings that you can fall into when aiming high. I have definitely experienced some pitfalls in the pursuit of perfection.

The first issue is that the pursuit of perfection can delay completion. A few weeks ago, I had to do a video presentation as part of a group project. What should have been a quick 2 minute video of me sitting in my room explaining some research, took almost three hours to make. I had no interruptions or equipment breakdowns, it was just that no recording was good enough. If I breathed incorrectly, I would delete the recording. If I put stress on the wrong syllable of a word, the recording would go in the trash. I was trying to reach the unattainable. The issue with pursuing the impossible is there is no end; you never reach a point of contentment. So, at some point, you have to lower your standards and make peace with what is practical. In a lot of situations, the practical is just as good as your perception of perfection, you are just too focused on one particular vision to realize it. For me, lowering my standard meant I had to settle for a good quality recording and pray that when the lecturer was going through hours and hours of videos, he wouldn’t penalize me because I put too much emphasis on the word ‘transformational’ at the one minute mark of my section.

Another trapping of pursuing perfection is that you can often live in the shadows of past successes. At least twice a year, I go through a minor crisis where I think that I’ve peaked too early in life. I look at what I was able to accomplish in the past and compare it to where I am now, and all I see is how far I have fallen. It’s like being a musician with a hit record who struggling to write their next song. It’s the fear of being a one-hit wonder. As my grandma likes to say, these are the times where you need to “face your front”. It is good to reflect on past successes, but your focus needs to be on the road ahead. Sadly, life is not a long incline, but rather a series of peaks and troughs. The mountains you have previously climbed have helped equip you for the challenges ahead. But you cannot let your past perfections cast shadows over your future journeys.

In the same way that past successes can prevent you from climbing higher, past imperfections can stifle progress. An example of this is when a chorus of people are reading text aloud, but one person sets off too early. Because of the embarrassment and the sudden wave of self-consciousness, the person who set off early usually holds back and waits a few lines before rejoining the others in reading. They let the initial blunder hold them back from moving forward with the others. In this case, the bounce back doesn’t take too long but, in many situations, people can let failures haunt them for months or even years. Recovering from failure is far easier said than done. It can be especially difficult when you set your eyes on perfection but are constantly surrounded by reminders of your imperfections and inadequacies. This is where the matter of focus comes into play. Your focus needs to be on your strengths, they will save you when you seem to be at your weakest. They buy you time to work on your shortcomings and allow you to continue advancing.

The pursuit of perfection is definitely a challenging task. It can result in the achievement of great things but can also be a hindrance to progress. For me, pursuing perfection should be about pursuing growth and improvement.  Aiming high (whether you are striving for perfection or not) is worth the struggle. You just need be cautious in your pursuits and ensure your focus is correctly aimed to prevent you from falling into certain trappings.