A perfectionist is a person who wants everything to be perfect. These people are not happy with anything less than perfection. The only problem with that is the possibility that anything could be perfect. After all, there are few things in this world that are, and those that are can usually be found in nature.
The truth is everything and everyone has flaws. I've heard men whistle at a beautiful woman saying how perfect they thought she was, but while she may have been attractive, she was in no way perfect. No one is. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that anyone, including you, is perfect. If you do, you're only lying to yourself.
Furthermore, don't beat yourself up if you happen to make a mistake. Everyone does. Think about the person who first placed an eraser on a pencil. This must have been something that they knew and understood, that by their own inherent nature people will and do make mistakes.
Albert Einstein said, "A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new."
Intellectuals like Einstein would have told you that just because they had the intelligence academics afforded them, it didn't make them perfect. The fact is the only people that claim such a feat of impossibility are ignorant fools whose main desire it is to place themselves on a pedestal while kicking everyone else to the ground below their feet.
The other day one of my professors made a rather profound statement. "A student may want a 4.0 grade point average but unless they are willing to make sacrifices then they probably won't make it. After all, a 4.0 is difficult to achieve," she said.
The trouble is, you can make all the sacrifices in the world. You can go without sleep. You can forget about that rave at the frat house. You can spend every waking moment of your day studying and still not achieve your goal. This is not because you are a failure but because you are human.
If you study like you should and give it your all, but still end up getting a grade on a test that's less than satisfactory, don't consider yourself a failure. A failure is someone who doesn't try but gives up without the slightest hint of effort.
None of us is perfect and neither is the world in which we live. For ages, people have dreamed a perfect world; a land of milk and honey. A utopia, if you will. The only thing is it's all just a dream that will never be. There are too many things that stand in the way of perfection. There are aspects of this troubled world that could be changed, but each and every one of us needs to understand that it will never be perfect.
I don't usually get religious in these columns but I'd like to leave you with something called the serenity prayer, which goes something like this: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can. And wisdom to know the difference." So while this isn't a perfect world, with a little help it could be a better one.
Write to Joshua at jsfaris@bsu.edu
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