Behind the door of Perfection
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Uh oh, the misery!
As a fellow human being, I have attempted to chase perfection.
It wasn’t the best.
Not only did it make me miserable, but it also reminded me of the trillions of things I just couldn’t control and the gazillions of things that came along with it.
I am sure most of us can relate.
Have you ever been told that someone else is simply just perfect? You may see how well they are doing and think, ‘They are, aren’t they?’
As someone who has fallen into this trap one too many times, let me tell you, no they aren’t.
Imperfection is Perfection
This is the first rule of perfection in my book.
Imperfection is perfection.
You are okay the way you are. Does that mean you shouldn’t make an effort to improve? Absolutely not!
But that means that you need to understand what improving yourself truly means.
When you say you improved yourself, what are you comparing yourself to? Your previous self! Improvement lies in progress and consistency.
Looking down when on a skyscraper, you are probably going to sh*t yourself, but looking forward you are going to be amazed at the beautiful view.
So look where you are right now, and admire that!
Perfection is a deception
Having been an ultimate compliment chaser myself, let me tell you that perfection is the most dead-end, dead-end ever!
It feels like a deception. Like a lie, you have been fed.
I feel like there is no point such as perfection that we can perceive.
Nothing we can perceive is perfect, anything zoomed in to a certain point will show underlying perfections whether that be in space or right here on our planet.
The worst teacher in the world is perfection.
It reminds you of everything you are not and could never be. It makes you ungrateful for everything you already have and with a fair bit of experience myself, puts you in a state of depression.
Rather than letting you look at yourself in the mirror doing a self-assessment, it shows you a fictional picture and then beats you down with it.
Every time you are making progress, you are bound to fall down, every time you get up you are bound to fall down again. Read that again.
When you make progress but then there is that minor setback, that you can’t probably control either BAM! You start doubting everything.
Am I good enough?
Am I even capable enough to make a difference?
Before you know it, the only thing to get up for is to sleep again. Let me tell you what a terrible feeling that is!
Success isn’t that far away
Just writing this puts a smile on my face man!
Wildly successful people aren’t that different from you, you know.
There are things they are better than you at, there are things you might be better than them at! They might be the most imperfect people ever, actually scratch that, they are the most imperfect people in the world.
They cuss, they get angry, they might have carried out petty exploits, they get arrogant, they might not ignore the occasional bribe, they might not be the best parents, they might lie!
There are a million things!
They fail daily. So the setback you experienced today that makes you feel down, they did too, they just had a different reaction, and starting today so can you.
Be proud of yourself and consistently make an effort. The good people around you are around you because of you, no one else! That in itself should make you incredibly grateful!
What you really need for success
You don’t need to go buy a $1000 course on a well-worded get-rich-quick agenda, rather you need to stop complaining.
I especially loved it when Gary Vee when talking said, “If you don’t complain I have literally no advice for you.”
It might seem stupid, me saying that, and I might have missed a condescending eye roll from you (I didn’t miss it did I?) but it really is essential.
If you don’t complain, you know what to improve as you take unbiased responsibility. That, ladies and gentlemen, is necessary.
Just make constant improvement and work ethic a habit and before you know it you’re there.
What I conveniently left out
Success is not to be pursued, it is to be attracted by the person you become
-Jim Rohn
He pursued personal development over anything else and that made it work for him.
The importance of personal development is also shared by arguably the most successful person ever (to this day) namely, Andrew Carnegie (estimated to be between $300-$375 billion in today’s amount)
Life is not so much a matter of position that that of disposition
-Andrew Carnegie
This might look like a blatant contradiction, but it isn’t.
These two amazing personalities owe the majority of their successes to personal development.
In 10 rules of success by Andrew Carnegie, he recites 6 in line for personal development. He was also never shy on the importance of kindness, he called it the ‘courage of being kind.’
Focus on yourself
When trying to improve yourself, know that the only person you have to focus on is yourself. When you look at people doing better than you, resentment is an obvious feeling, part of the reason is that their effort has gone under your nose. It feels as if everything was just given to them. So the important thing to do is stay in your lane and make the best out of what you already have.
The only person you are competing with is you. The sooner you realize that the sooner you feel happier and genuinely improve!
All in all, improve yourself every day but make sure you do that. When people flaunt and show off their success to you, smile and wish them better. If they are simply being a dick about it, consider not staying in their company for long as that could rub off on you.
Be proud of yourself, but don’t be arrogant. Value what you say but don’t be ignorant. Be brave but don’t be stupid. Be massive by being simple and sometimes, simply just listen!
