Giving Soulfood #31

Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond imperfections.

Gerard Way

Hey guy! New month new template haha. Orights, just gotta let you guys know, every Wednesday, whatever content you see here will also be cross posted to @01step_at_a_time. You can check that page out for more study related content:)

But back to the quote proper!

Perfection. It’s an interesting concept, isn’t it. It’s something that many of us chase in our lives, but yet, it is something that is so unachievable. What is perfection anyway? Things could be going so well already, but if one doesn’t learn to be content with what one has, one will always still see something wrong with the situation.

And in this chase for perfection, we often forgo the little things in life. We are so used to thinking about the big picture that we sometimes just forget about the things that actually matter. If you think about it, are you going to remember the grades on a test or are you going to remember having fun with friends in secondary school? Is that extra 2 hours of mugging at home alone really more precious than spending 2 hours having dinner with your family on a Sunday night? Will not completing one or two questions of your homework every once in a while really be so disastrous that you sacrifice your health for it?

Now I’m not discrediting working hard to get where you want to go. It is important no doubt. But do we sometimes over analyse every tiny little detail such that we sacrifice too much for it?

As with all things in life, the key lies in balance. That’s easy to say on paper, but how many of us have truly mastered the power of balance?

This is partly the reason why, if you read enough of what I’ve put out on the Internet, I always advocate for chasing progress and not perfection.

Chasing for progress, to me, means that we are leaving enough room for ourselves to make mistakes and fumble. There is so much less pressure on presenting only the best face of ourselves and that to me, is how we remain happy. Because we can only be happy when we accept that we are not born to be perfect. We all have our imperfections and while it is perfectly reasonable to want to work on them as we grow, we don’t have to beat ourselves up over the tiniest imperfections.