Tuesday, July 4, 2023
Perfectionists spend the majority of their time and energy arranging the outer condition, putting everything in order to finally be happy. The premise of the perfectionist is this, “If I can get it just right in what I do, in what I have, and in how people treat me, then my emotional well-being will be spot on perfect. Here’s the bad news, that’s a fool’s game.
The outside world is impersonal, in constant flux, temporal, and is always subject to fault. Even the words you’re reading, once they come in, you can find something wrong with them. There is nothing perfect on the external level, not in the way a perfectionist sees them, anyway. Have you seen the perfect cloud? Have you seen the perfect tree? I’m sure everything out in nature could be criticized for some “defect.” Yet the perfectionist insists on getting everything thus and so. But the minute it appears in the externality, it’s subject to fault and soon the perfectionist sees it. The perfectionist is caught in a lie, for the outside world cannot make them happy. It might for a while, until they notice a “problem.” On paper it might seem perfect, but when it takes form it’s full of holes!
You cannot perfect what you do, what you say, how people treat you, nor what’s all around you. Leave it be. Make the inside just right, full of love and hope. The only way to be happy is to flow in harmony with the imperfect, changing nature of the world. Your job is to perfect your faith, boost your spirit, and create something that contributes goodness to the world. But don’t expect what you create or what you do or say to be “perfect.” Everything comes out imperfectly, but it’s born out of love, and that’s all that matters.