Do Not Allow The Need to be Perfect to Slowly Burden Your Life
The need to be perfect is an illusion that will lead to inevitable failures. Trust me, the people who know and love you know you are not ideal. Good friends and family do not need to accept perfection. Just ask them, and they will tell you.
You don’t need to be perfect to be accepted. If you were perfect, your life would be a living hell. In this post, I will explore why many of us feel the need to be perfect, why it is always destructive, and some strategies for letting go of that need and enjoying life more.
The Negative Effects Caused By The Need to Be Perfect
If perfect, you would be pursued and hounded by many people, groups, and organizations. You would be even more popular than Kim Kardashian West. LOL.
At best, you would end up as a government science experiment, locked in a cage and poked and prodded to divulge your secrets.
Jesus was as close to perfect as any man who had ever lived and looked at what had happened to him. The need to be perfect can be a destructive force in one’s life, almost as much as being ideal.
We are all perfectly imperfect by design. Human diversity is our strength. Avoid making impossible demands on yourself at work, home, and personal relationships.
The need to be perfect usually ends in disappointment, stress, and unneeded suffering.
Some people’s unyielding demand for perfection usually spills over to other aspects of life. For example, placing those same unreasonable demands on family and friends destroys relationships. People begin to dislike being around you.
People Hate to See Human Perfection Coming
They even begin to hate seeing you coming. You only see them if they don’t see you coming first. LOL. Instilling the need to be perfect in children can yield the most devastating adverse effects.
We have all seen this behavior and felt powerless to do anything. We all know nothing is perfect. Dhu! So why do people falsely pursue it? Many feel the need to be perfect to be accepted. They think that if they are perfect, they will be in control.
In our society, perfection is associated with high-level accomplishment. People believe perfection comes with an automatic sense of admiration, security, and predictability. The need to be perfect acts as a safeguard against the pain, frustration, disappointment, heartache, and irritations of our day-to-day lives.
For instance, when the need to be perfect is allowed to prevail unchecked, it will lead to destructive self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret. There is no other possible result.
Perfection is impossible and imperfect.
Perfectly Imperfect is Your Power
The need to be perfect is not all bad. When controlled, it can be a powerful motivation propelling you to succeed. Once you understand that nothing is perfect and others’ acceptance should not demand it, you are on your way to healthy relationships.
Your attempts to be perfect will yield varying results depending on many variables. Your preparation, abilities, health, and other variables will affect your progress. If you have done your best, just be OK with the results.
Remember that others are affected by the same variables in different ways. Don’t judge yourself and, more importantly, others too harshly for not achieving your desired results.
You are not in control, and the need to be perfect will not compensate for that. None of us are ever in complete control of our circumstances; we deal with them. Just do your best and control what you can.
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“Lord, grant me the strength to accept the things I cannot change,
he courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.”
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For instance, when you give up the need to be perfect, you acknowledge and accept brutally that you are not in control, which is a significant first step. You will stop hiding behind the need to be perfect, knowing you will fail to avoid daily realities.
These are the grounding principles for building a solid foundation. Being genuinely grounded in your true self requires them. You can now make sense of the rush of emotions that life brings.
You can enjoy, accept, and reject them without the burden of feeling the need to be perfect.
Is the need to be perfect burdening your life? Has the need to be perfect ever burdened your life? Do you know anyone burdened by the need to perfect someone in their life?
Please leave a comment below.
Amazing article my friend! I can’t agree with you more that perfect doesn’t even exist. Growing up we tend to see celebrities on T.V, looking their best and performing their best. But in reality, they aren’t ALWAYS like that, they feel what we feel, they act how we act behind closed doors. We all get caught up in trying to copy them, but all along we are fighting against nothing, because there’s nothing to fight for. I enjoyed your perspective on this, thanks for the informative article 🙂
Totally true. I happen to have a bit of this characteristic and sometimes it’s very annoying. It seems that I take life very seriously and that everything has to be perfect. I already knew and this article also helped me to understand this.
Thank you
Thanks for your comment David. The need to be perfect is a common trait among successful people. I am sure you have learned if you are not too hard on yourself and other people you can use it as an advantage.