I have to tell you something.
In the 6 months I’ve had this blog I haven’t written a full article about a topic that I’m incredibly passionate about: veganism (specifically, compassion for living creatures).
It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s that I just can’t seem to get my thoughts out into a flowing string of coherent sentences.
I have thousands of words written on the topic. (I’m afraid to even look at the total word count right now because I know I’ll have to edit profusely.)
The problem with these thousands of words is they are rambling, disorganized, cluttered, and don’t make my point as strongly as it needs to be made.
I’m not into preaching. I won’t tell you how to live your life. You and me? We can make our own way.
That said, for you to understand the Ridiculously Extraordinary Way, you have to understand every aspect of the man behind it.
Everything I write is a filter.
If you like what I have to say you will stick around.
If you don’t, you’ll filter yourself out and stop reading what I write.
I’m fine with both outcomes.
I’m not here to change your mind. I’m here to help you synthesize what you already believe. If what you believe aligns with what I write then we’re a match. If it doesn’t align we part ways amicably.
Maybe I’m struggling with perfection? Logic and experience tell me perfection is unattainable. My heart tells me I need to attain perfection.
I’ve received quite a few e-mails (and comments) regarding veganism. There is nothing I’d like more than to point everybody to an article on this site that explains the whys, the hows, and all the other ancillary information on the topic.
But it hasn’t worked out.
I’m great at pushing myself to keep writing even when my writing isn’t coming easily. I’m not good at forcing myself to keep writing an article that just doesn’t want to come out.
Maybe the article is in chrysalis, still not quite ready to fly like a butterfly.
I don’t know.
I’m a firm believer that anything you want in life you can have. But perfection? Perfection is not meant to be acquired.
So then, How Do We Achieve Perfection?
We don’t.
We achieve a high level of imperfection.
And you know what?
That’s perfect.
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{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
Achieving and awesome level of imperfection and learning to embrace our humanness is a liberating realization and an extraordinary experience ;). It’s all a part of the process and journey. Now I think I’m going to take a nap… I love those 3 hour naps.
Mmm…I love naps too! Although I limit mine to 20-30 minutes so as not to wake up groggy. :)
Yeah I have to admit that the 20-30 minute naps are better, but sometimes I just think to myself “hey I can do what I want” and then I sleep forever ;)
I spent years under the Curse of Perfection, and was released from it, in an instant, by something my then-boyfriend/now-husband said to me: “Perfection is boring.” That smacked me right upside the head, because it’s so true. It’s our imperfections that are interesting, unique, and significant. And I’ve been a whole lot happier and easier on myself since that moment.
Thank you Jean! I love that quote. Perfection really is boring. :) It also keeps us from taking action.
The article will never be perfect, but even your disorganized, cluttered ramblings may help a lot of people understand where you’re coming from and possibly make a positive change in their own lives if they are torn between both sides (like I am).
If I told you my wife and I are planning to have a big ol’ juicy steak tonight for dinner, would that motivate you?
Just kidding…. ;-)
haha
Simply writing this motivated me to get a move on with the article. :)
The subject of perfectionism and being “perfect” is something that strikes a nerve with me, so I had to come check out this article in particular.
It’s so hard to fight that inner perfectionist… but you are so right- perfection is achieving a high level of imperfection. Beautifully put.
And, I’d love to read your thoughts on veganism, as well, when ever it’s ready to be written. :)
Thank you Karen. Good to know the article resonated with you. :)
Short and excellent post. I get the feeling you wrote a longer post and edited it down? Either way its true. We just keep improving our outer imperfections and remain inwardly perfect. The part of you that is perfect does not need improving but things in life do.
Thank you for your thoughts Richard.
And yes…as with most of my posts these days, they get edited down heavily from 1,000 – 2,000 words.
Shooting for perfection has held me back many times. Perfection, which I don’t believe can exist, takes to long to produce. A better approach is to do and redo. Just doing is the key to accomplishing.
While waiting for perfection, the doer gets it done.
Hey Jason,
You’ve got it. Another way to put it is to “throw shit against the wall and see what sticks.” Just taking action is important.
For the most part I’m good at doing that. It’s the veganism article in particular that has given me difficulties.
Karol
I’m neither vegan nor vegetarian, but I do find it interesting to understand why such choices are made.
Personally I would describe veganism as a philosophy and way of life which can be as subjective as any belief system and will involve grey areas which are open to interpretation (e.g.: “are animals used to fertilise cotton fields?”, “aren’t animals killed during the harvesting process?”, etc.).
The way I look at it is from a pluralist perspective.
Yes, there are gray areas. But comparing animals killed during the harvesting of a crop (which I’m sure happens) to the hundreds of billions of animals killed in factory farms is absurd. More than that, it’s an excuse, a cop out, a rationalization of factory farms as ok. If you want to eat meat I don’t mind, but let’s be clear about the very real rape and torture that living, breathing, feeling animal had to go through to get to your table.
And now you see why this article has been difficult to write. :)
I would argue that I didn’t mention factory farms ;) we seem to agree that the methods of getting the meat are not great. Would it matter so much if it was all free range and organic?
Although digression. I intended to steer towards the idea of looking at where the stuff we consume comes from and the consequences of that.
For me the goal is perfection. Obviously I can’t ever reach that but as long as I am working towards that goal one step at a time I consider myself successful.
I think, Karol, that you’re having difficulty writing the article because you’re trying to please all aspects of your readership’s potential issues with your journey to veganism.
Quit foretelling the future and just do it. :)
Or, review your work, delete the duplicate info, and condense it into a list. Who cares if it’s “101 reasons veganism changed my life and corner of the world.”
At least it will be coherent, right?
Yeah, I know. I actually wrote an article about veganism for David Damron’s Simple Health eBook. It wasn’t so hard. :)
Thanks Jeanie!
This is a beautiful post. :)
Thank you Anthea!
I love what you are doing, how you approach it, and I understand how you write… it’s comforting to know… Thanks, Karol – Michele!
You’re welcome and thank you for your kind words Michele! :)
Perfect is the enemy of great. Progress is through mistakes. Set out to create perfection and you never finish. Set out to create good, improve, improve, share, comment, change, recycle, update, improve… and you have great. I have a pending blog post on why we have so much mediocrity and so little great in the world of business. I think bosses tell us when something A) is not done or B) is bad; but it is only ourselves from the inside that can drive the shift from “good enough” to “truly great”. I know that I can find this step hard. Nothing external drives it. It must come from inside.
I don’t know about bosses, but I do know that many of us entrepreneurs are too hard on ourselves sometimes. Or we’re too afraid to ship so we use “it’s not perfect yet” as an excuse.