Perfection

            The goal of Perfection is commonly striven for in human life. Whatever someone does, they want to do it perfectly. A job done with excellence and with no mistakes, a job done perfectly, receives the highest merit. So, with the emphasis on doing it perfectly, the goal should be to achieve that perfection. If you want to have the most success, you should be perfect as often as possible, if not all the time. The loftiest goal would be to achieve perfection on every task, thus being perfect at perfection. No mistakes ever, 100% on every exam, every paper, every assignment. Perfection at being perfect.

            This standard or belief that you should be perfect all the time is an impossible one to achieve. Humans by their very definition are imperfect beings; otherwise, they would be deities. To err is human, and humans err a lot. But why, then, is the goal to be perfect? Obviously, it is to make these lazy people, remember laziness and war, to try their hardest. If perfection is the expectation, then the person has to try to be perfect. They will have to go all out to not screw up, other wise they will fail. Surely, perfection is not the true expectation for everything, it is just set out there as a carrot to try to obtain. Not everyone expects their students or employees to be perfect or do perfect work all the time, but they set the goal out there for them to strive for. If they come close to perfection, the ulterior motive of extracting the best work possible from someone has been met. The declared goal is known to be unrealistic, but it is the best way to get the best effort.

All do not hold the view that getting something as close as possible to perfection is the real expectation. There are some who see anything less than perfection as failure. These are the people who need help, even though they won’t accept it. But you can’t help them through comfort; it won’t work. If you tell them that a 99% on a test is ok, they won’t believe you. If you tell them they had the highest grade in the class, they won’t care, especially since stuff like that tends to make you the target of spitballs, wedgies, and bullets, but that’s another issue. Just being better than everyone else isn’t good enough, being perfect when no one else is, that’s what’s good enough. Anyways, whatever form of comfort you try to give them, they won’t listen or respond positively to it. They’ll scoff and basically say “Yeah, riiiiiight.” What they really need is understanding. In order to console the perfectionist who has failed, you just have to understand why they’re down. Saying “it’s okay, you still got an A” just reminds them that they screwed up, and that’s how they will take it. You’re adding fuel to their self-critical fire, stop throwing the gasoline on the fire. Change the subject, be tactful; use the understanding that the person won’t allow any comfort in at all and avoid twisting the dagger. But the most important thing of all is to keep them involved. DO NOT let them cut themselves off from everyone else. DO NOT let them seclude themselves. It is dangerous to let someone who is disappointed in themselves to be alone, dangerous as in detrimental to their health. Don’t let it happen; keep them distracted for a long enough time to call the guys with the straightjacket. Maybe it won’t need to come to that; maybe the distraction will be enough to allow the to forget about being depressed. Doubtful, but it could happen.

So, go forth and try to help out your self-hating friends. They won’t really show it, but they will appreciate the attempt.