Why being imperfect is a good thing

Voltaire, the extraordinary French writer, once claimed: “Perfect is the enemy of good”. Strange, huh?

I agree with him. When I reflect on my life so far, I notice how perfection has never been as interesting as imperfection. My flaws, rough edges, weaknesses, on the other hand, have been… memorable.

I used to think that I could change the entire world if I wanted to, let alone people and their feelings towards me. I wanted to be the best at everything and at every time. For me, 2 + 2 always had to equal 4. I lived my life like a rule book, and anything that went another way would frustrate me to the core. However, overtime I realised that I, nor the world, can ever be perfect. Sometimes others let us down, sometimes we let others down. And that is okay. That is perfectly normal. Leaving the idea of perfection behind makes us adaptable to live in this world which is often as unfair to us as it is fair.

Imperfections also make us accept our human frailty. When I was writing my book during the 2020 pandemic, I found it incredibly freeing to tell myself at the end of a chapter, “This is fine. I think I’m done with that part.” Once we realise that perfection is a destination where we’ll never truly arrive, we begin to accept that our work will never be a 100%, and we learn to find peace with the best we can do.

High standards are fine, but unrealistically high standards make us miserable. You, like me, may therefore find that the motto, “Aim for excellence, not perfection,” can remind us to do our best without the anxiety and frustration that accompanies a perfectionist mindset. We don’t always have to “deal” with our imperfections, but rather look at them through a different light. At the end of the day, imperfections make life beautiful. So beautiful.

⁃ SaaniaSparkle 🧚🏻‍♀️