I always admire people who do things perfectly -- the singer who hits the right notes in a song, the gymnast who executes a daring aerial maneuver, the leader delivering an effective motivational speech to move thousands of followers to action, the chef who cooks up a gastronomic delight, etc. -- things that no ordinary mortal can do.
What many people do not know is that their path to perfection was replete with mistakes and mostly learning how *not* to do things so that they can see and learn to tread the narrow path to perfection. Even Thomas Edison, the great inventor, learned how not to do a light bulb 10,000 times before he finally perfected his design.
As for me, I know I'm not perfect and having a few mistakes here and there is just normal. The time I see myself not making any mistakes at all is a cause for worry. This means I'm not productive enough, I'm not risking enough, I'm not learning enough, and I'm not living life to the fullest.
Being the personality that I am, I would rather accomplish 100 things with one miss than play it safe and accomplish only 10 things with zero misses. This workhorse attitude puts me at risk of making more mistakes than the average person, simply because I also accomplish more. Sadly, there are people in this world who take pleasure in pointing out people's mistakes (as if it makes them any better than the rest), taking every opportunity to bash a person and remind them of their past mistakes. I always wish these types of people would disappear forever from the face of this earth whenever they do their thing on me. It makes no sense for me to go down to their level to fight back so I just ignore them and move on.
Interestingly though, now that I have thought about it, I too am guilty of this people-bashing every time I check on my eldest daughter’s school work (she’s 4 years old and in nursery right now). I point out and focus on her 1 mistake out of 50 items instead of congratulating her for doing 98% correct. I know it helps to point out her error so that she'll know and learn, but the primary focus should be reinforcing her strong belief in herself that she did very well in school, that she can do better with a little more effort, and that she knows I believe in her.
My teachers, bosses, and even business mentors were not able to drill this down into me successfully despite their efforts -- to focus on the positive side of things (I was really stubborn to their wisdom-sharing). But in one fell swoop, a small child instantly taught me that very important lesson complete with a practical example to permanently nail it down in my head.
Looking beyond the negative and focusing only on what is good... That's actually the "biblical way" to tackle these types of situations:
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." (Philippians 4:8)
Indeed, perfection is good.
But imperfection... and seeing beyond that imperfection... is absolutely better.
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Trivia: Navajo rug makers always include a small imperfection in their rug called a “spirit string” to allow the “spirit” that they have put into the work to escape and because only God is perfect. If it ain’t imperfect, it ain’t perfect.
~florent flora
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