What’s really wrong with perfection
By Claudia Svartefoss
Right now, there’s a lot of focus on how wrong wanting perfection is. As a perfectionist myself, I feel inundated with negative information and focus about who I really am. This got me thinking about this subject, and what’s really wrong with perfection and why wanting it seems like such a bad idea at the moment.
Wanting perfection
As human beings, we want perfection because we associate it with happiness. When things are perfect, we can relax and enjoy our lives – we can be happy. But the way we’ve defined perfection, as “a flawless state of being” is what sets us up for failure, so to speak.
You see, the most powerful process in our amazing environment is the process of evolution and expansion which guarantees improvement. So we can’t ever achieve perfection in the way we’ve defined it, because that means whatever is “perfect” would be outside of our environment.
As a perfectionist, I’ve always wanted things to be perfect, I’ve always had this clear desire to reach for the highest goals, in the shortest amount of time. But every time I reached my goals I was in a new standpoint, wanting new goals, of even higher standards. It sounds like one can never be happy this way, doesn’t it?
I realized that perfection doesn’t actually mean a flawless state of being because there is always more to be wanted and more to be experienced. It’s our natural desire as human beings, as a natural part of this evolution and expansion based environment. We can’t stop wanting more because then it would all end.
Our desire for perfection is what drives everything forward. Imagine if we created something, declared it “perfect,” and then never improved it ever again, but we would just settle for whatever it was. How would that even work? This quest for improvement is a direct result of our environment, but because we’ve been misusing our ability to experience contrast, we have been trying to achieve this misunderstood concept of perfection by fixing our problems.
Want to read later? Download PDF version of this article:
A PDF version of this post will be generated for you to read later.
We can think a positive thought and we can think a negative thought about the same subject. Our method of achieving happiness and perfection by fixing problems is what’s led us to focus on problems. But according to how things in our environment work, the more we focus on problems, the more problems we see.
I’ve done this my whole life, until I discovered the power of focusing on the positive things already existing in my life. So instead of continuing to blame myself for wanting perfection, I realized it’s natural. We all want perfection. None of us deliberately set an intention to create a crooked phone or a dysfunctional car. None of us deliberately set an intention to mess things up. What happens is that because of our focus on problems, we experience a diminished reality. Our negative focus becomes our negative beliefs that limit our experience, but also our results. And then, we draw a logical conclusion: perfection cannot be attained, it’s impossible.
It’s not that it can’t be attained, it’s that it doesn’t exist in the way we’ve defined it. Instead of continuing to reach for this non-existent flawless state of being, we can empower ourselves to understanding that there is always improvement to be experienced. And instead of blaming ourselves or feeling guilty for not reaching something that doesn’t exist, we can turn our attention toward bringing into existence the best, highest quality creation we can at the given time, while understanding that the “flaw” is the opportunity for improvement that is always ensured by our wonderful environment.
We can now understand that perfection isn’t something that we reach, but rather something that is attained in every single moment because we have the choice to improve our current state of being, wherever we may find ourselves in relation with where we want to be, through the power of our focus. The very fact that we can improve everything is what perfection really is.
Focusing on the problems or flaws does not allow us to focus on the many positive, wonderful, amazing things already existing in our lives. We can’t focus on two different things in the same time, even though we have the ability to think as fast as we do. By focusing on our problems, we then experience negative emotion which leads us to believe there’s something wrong and if we manage to fix it, everything will be fine again
But you see, the more we focus on our problems, the more problems we see, the more tired and disempowered we become so that even when we do fix a problem, we can’t enjoy the result.
Understanding perfection as the opportunity for improvement and focusing on the many wonderful things in our lives, leads us to be naturally inspired to enjoy ourselves and our lives. And that’s what we are here for, after all, isn’t it?
