On never being perfect

How many of you would consider yourselves "perfectionists"? 

In the sixth grade someone told me that I was a perfectionist, and the label stuck. I liked being known as someone who wouldn't settle for anything less than perfect. I suppose I was making a bit of a jump in logic to assume that being a perfectionist meant I was close to perfection. 

I remember performing a martial arts trick for a guest instructor in the midst of my pursuit of perfectionism. I had done the trick a thousand times and had arrived at a level where I believed it was perfect. 

The guest instructor was an old man from a completely different martial arts school. Although he was a higher rank than me, I felt he'd be impressed by my perfect execution of the kick. 

He smiled as I performed it, and applauded when I completed the maneovre. But then he said something that caught me off-guard. 

"Not bad." 

I thought he was joking. 

"I think you could make that better, if you..."

I didn't really hear what he was saying. I was hurt that he had failed to recognize my "mastery" of the technique. I was stunned that he thought I could make it better! After all, if it could be made better, then it was never really perfect.

I thought about that day a lot after that, and I realized that my understanding of perfection was much different from the guest instructor's. In fact I began to imagine everyone having a different ideal to represent perfection. 

Under this view, I could only ever be perfect by my standards, and to everyone else there would always be something on which to improve. Essentially I could never be perfect. Nobody can. Not for everybody.

What a mind-opening opportunity! What a load off my back! Not being perfect meant I was allowed to make mistakes and allowed to learn from others. It means that there is no limit to our potential, to the possibilities that lie before us! 

And just because you'll never get there, doesn't mean you can't try. Rather than aiming for perfection now, I prefer to say that I'm aiming to do the best that I can.

What more can you ask than that?

This is a video of Matt Emig, who has definitely raised the bar on martial arts trickery since my experience with the guest instructor.