Perfectionism

PERFECTIONISM

         How often do we push ourselves to the limit? How often do we do something just for the sake of it? Not even trying to improve a little.

         I had a teacher, Mrs. L. She always gave us assignments. But she would also make it clear that she did not want us to submit the assignments if we did not wish to. And if we decided to submit, she would say: "please don't write rubbish". So if we did her assignments, it was the best of our efforts that we put forward. Somehow, almost each time, she would find it lacking; either something was missing or there were too many unnecessary details or it was simply "not right". She would make us do it all over again, and again, if she thought it still was not good enough. The thing is, she recognized the best in us and made sure that she brought it out.

         My brother is also someone who always tells me, "If you do something, make sure you do it well". He felt that there was no point in doing something just to have someone redo it. I would roll my eyes, but he did have a point.

         Another teacher, Mr. T, once told me that doing things we don't like builds character. It did not make much sense to me at the time. Then, I read The Agony and the Ecstasy by Irving Stone, a biographical novel of Michelangelo Buonarroti.

         Michelangelo is one of the greatest artists of all times. He was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer. He loved doing marble sculptures, but was not very eager when it came to bronze sculptures, and disliked painting. His hands only longed for the touch of marble. But irrespective of what he was working on, he always aimed for perfection. The reason: he wanted to make sure that all who came across his work would be in awe of it. He did not want his name to be associated with anything mediocre.

         This is when Mr. T's words really made sense to me. When we do something, it is not about whether we like what we are doing or not, it is about how well or how poorly we do it. People see 'our work'; the enjoyment, or the absence of it during the process of producing the work is inconsequential.  It is through the work we do that we create our identity, present our character for all to see.

         I was fortunate to have people who tried to make more out of me. But we cannot always have others pushing us to, and sometimes through our limits, to get the very best out of us. So we should at least try to do things to perfection, not as a special case but as the only case. Or we may never discover if a Michelangelo is present within us.