“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.” -Voltaire

Perfection is enticing. Of course it is, who doesn’t want perfect? The idea we have of perfection is the shimmering state of everything being just as it is meant to be. However, stare too long at it and it will blind you to the present and stunt your growth. 

That’s because  when all we strive for is perfection we miss opportunities to grow through making mistakes. We get tunnel vision and don’t want to stop until everything is as it should be. Just a couple more months of overtime, a few more business trips and meetings, a couple more trips to the gym and THEN you’ll be happy…do you see it?

When my kids were in their earlier years of schooling I’d visit for parent teacher nights. I always loved looking in on the classrooms where my kids spent their time. One thing I remember noticing was one of those scholastic posters that hung in the English teachers room. It read,

“Shoot for the moon, and if you miss at least you will be amongst the stars.”

No idea who said it, and honestly that very same poster is probably in every school in the country-but do you see the parallel?

We miss out on too much of life when we are only focused on attaining perfection. We think that once we have that dream job, dream home, dream weight, or any other version of a “perfect life” that we will finally be happy. When we pursue perfection we are rarely met with the promises we hoped it would fulfill. And as we reach for it with all of our might there are often times better and realer things we could be holding onto instead.

We’re missing the stars when we wallow in the fact that we didn’t reach the moon on the first try. 

Think of all the inventions that had to fail before we had the lightbulb. How many times every one of our hero’s failed before becoming our heroes. How many bad ideas came before that one that changed everything for someone else. When we make mistakes we are in the company of all of human history.

We romanticize perfection when we should be reveling in the lessons that come with chasing dreams. I’ve talked about the idea of seeing your mistakes as opportunities in other blogs and I’ll say it again because it’s true. Your mistakes do not define you, all of the ways you missed the mark do not make you less worthy of a joy filled life, the truth is you are bound to mess up so you may as well make it mean something. 

Does it sound pessimistic for me to say that you’ll never be perfect? If anything the thought should free you. No one else is perfect, so why do you have to be? Why do you have to sit back and plan the perfect next step or wait for that perfect moment to leap into action? Why are you ignoring a truth that could actually free you?

Winston Churchill said it best, “Perfection is the enemy of progress.”

Don’t let the fear of imperfections freeze you in your pursuit forward. Embrace that it is inevitable and prepare your mind to view mistakes as opportunities. Ask questions, talk it through with someone, whatever you have to do to maintain joy in the pursuit of the life you want.

You won’t ever be perfect, but you can always be growing. 

Lead Well,