It Will Never Be Perfect
Perfection, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Lots of people hold off on projects, creations, and other work because they need to make it perfect. Right from the start they seek to have it all flawless with the “t’s” crossed and “i’s” dotted. They do everything they can to make sure they have all the metaphors in a row before doing the art, painting the painting, starting the business, or what have you.
There is one very big, glaring problem with this. It will never be perfect. But that’s because nothing is ever, subjectively, perfect.
That’s because perfection, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Ergo, my perfect is your utterly fucked up, your perfect is my not right, and everyone else has an opinion, too.
This can be especially disheartening if you strive for completeness and perfection in anything and/or everything you do. You might intellectually know that it will never be perfect, but in your heart and soul, you aim for perfection anyway.
Get it done
There is a wonderful quote attributed to Sheryl Sandberg,
“Done is better than perfect.”
This statement can, to some, be a letdown. To others, however, it’s very empowering. The message is clear – getting it done is better than making it perfect.
It doesn’t help that the world holds people to impossible standards. How many people believe that they are less than others because they don’t have the home, car, or wardrobe? It’s all too easy to use comparison and competition to keep people small and dissuade them from doing their thing if it’s imperfect in any way.
Yet the simple act of doing something, taking action, is ginormous. No idea has ever become a reality without action. Even if you combine thought with feeling and intent, without action it never manifests.
All too often, perfecting the concept, lining it all up, and similar notions get in the way of taking the idea and making it happen. Hence, action. Take action, get it done, and you’re on your way.
Never perfect and perfectly imperfect
What is perfection? It’s the idea that something has reached the ultimate pinnacle of being. It’s the best, the top, the most impressive. There is nothing to be altered, changed, or modified because it’s absolutely right.
Yet, is it? Nope. Everybody is a critic and that which one person sees as perfect another sees as utterly disastrous.
Sometimes, in the quest for perfection, people go back and redo finished work. A friend was telling me recently about showing his young son the original 1977 Star Wars before any of George Lucas’ multiple modifications and reworkings were done to it.
It can never be perfect because perfect is subjective. Yet people try again and again to make it perfect. That’s why lots of books have never been written or published, art never committed to canvas, songs unsung, and businesses never get off the ground. The quest for perfection overtook getting it done, so it is unfinished to this day.
Do it well
Unfortunately, there is a matter to address here. Maybe you can’t achieve perfection, but done doesn’t mean half-assed.
Lots of people get so frustrated in the quest for perfection that they half-ass the work to get it done. That’s not what this is about. This is about taking action to make something manifest with your energy committed to it. Half-assing and doing a project poorly is almost more unsatisfying than letting the quest for perfection keep you from getting it done.
There are plenty of inferior, half-assed products in the world. Maybe they can make you a quick buck, but how will that make you feel? If you care, and you create for the joy and excitement of creating, you’ll feel empty. That’s why done might be better than perfect, but half-assed is not satisfactorily done (and, arguably, intentionally and maliciously imperfect).
It will never be perfect
That doesn’t mean you can’t do work to start and improve on it. What’s more, every initial idea is just that. The first. Hence, it can and will be followed by something else.
I’m preparing to publish my 16th fictional novel soon. It’s a far cry from my first published work, because I’ve learned, grown, and developed as an author. No, it’s not perfect, but it’s done. Now I am working with the edits I got back from my editor to make it as good as I can before you can buy it.
It will never be perfect but it will still be out there. You have the power to choose to make your art, book, business, or whatever other venture a reality. It’s okay that it will never be perfect because perfection is utterly subjective.
Can you see that it’s both normal and okay that it will never be perfect?
This is the six-hundred-ninety-first (691) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to repost and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out my author website for the rest of my published fiction and nonfiction works.
Follow me here!
