"Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase
perfection we can catch excellence." ~Vince Lombardi
"Success is the result of hard work, learning from
failure, loyalty, and persistence." ~Colin Powell
"Strive for continuous improvement, instead of
perfection." ~Kim Collins
Society may tell us that if we are not perfect we are not
good enough. Have you ever heard the following? "You will never make
it." Or "You don't have what it takes." Progress in life is not
a matter of doing something perfectly, it is a matter of doing something
consistently and with persistence and not giving up even if the results of our
first attempts are not what we hope it to be eventually. I love the following
statement. "That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not because the
nature of the thing has changed, but because our ability to do it has
increased." Often people can overwhelm themselves by feeling
responsibility for circumstances out of their control. Investing our attention
in something out of our control always ends up in a disappointed defeat.
Effective people I believe focus on things they can control
and work for improvement, but do not force themselves into an unrealistic doom
of perfection. They do not take the desire for improvement over time and turn
it into an obsession to be perfect now, because they know that this type of
insanity would drive them to feel worse about themselves and actually lower
self image. The problem with perfection is that if a person never attains it
they are then left feeling deflated, or defeated, and as if they cannot
accomplish their goals. This week let's think about persistence and excellence,
and forget about any expectations of the impossible weight of perfection.
