Dealing With Perfectionism - Why Humans Can Never Achieve Perfection

Consider looking at yourself in the mirror.

Have you ever looked so closely and intensely at your reflection that you start to become aware of the details and complexities of your skin that you otherwise never notice?

Have you ever stared at your reflection until you no longer recognize it?

What is it that you are looking at?

Is it YOU?

Are YOU your face?

Are YOU your brain?

Do you control entirely what it is that you are looking at?

If it decides to grow hair, do you have any say in the matter?

You can cut or shave the hair, but it will continue to grow.

What you are staring at it, therefore, not entirely yours.

It belongs partly to the collective entity of life.

What you are staring at is part stranger to you, and you must make friends with it or it will become your worst enemy.

As humans, we are just as unconscious as we are conscious.

For everything that we can control and understand about ourselves, there is an equal amount that we cannot.

We sit somewhere in the middle, between complete consciousness and complete unconsciousness, and this is arguably where all human conflict stems from.

Smart enough to understand the notion of complete control and perfection, but not smart enough to achieve it.

We have yet to become what we conceive and expect of ourselves.

But no matter how hard we try, at this point in evolution, we will never be of complete and perfect omniscience.

We all know this, yet it seems that we constantly expect perfection from our self and the rest of the world.

But we must not depend our purpose and excitement in life on whether or not we can control and perfect everything.

Our sense of purpose and excitement is found in the way that our imperfection keeps life fresh, uncertain, and inspiring.

Only those who can possess the conscious abilities of the human, but not be tormented by the conscious inabilities of the human, will become into what it truly means to be human in the first place.

We must learn to separate the desire of perfection and the expectation of perfection.

It is admirable and very human to strive for perfection, but it is equally human to not achieve it.

We must remember this as we travel through life, so that we do not become disheartened and void of wonder and enjoyment.