Perfect, immaculate and pure. Adjectives, which describe our inner wishes. Since every person is striving for their ideal being, everyone defines these adjectives differently. The mindsets of people differ, which leads everyone to another image of a perfect life. This is just how life works and what makes us unique. Perfectionism is a part of it and it could be seen as negative and positive at the same time.
Since most of the people define perfect as the ultimate state of fulfillment, a perfect life or a perfect person just can’t exist. People have flaws and they indeed make mistakes. It just can’t be that somebody ever will be perfect. But why is this so impossible?
As I said before, perfection is defined differently. Like Utopia and Dystopia is not the same for everyone, so does perfection mean something else to the individual. Living in a rich mansion and being able to do literally nothing the whole day could be the dystopia for one, the utopia for another. It’s a matter of perspectives. Something which seems to be plenarily perfect for one could be a disaster for somebody else. Still, perfection is not an illusion. Contrary to the opinion of many people and our society, perfection can be achieved.
Yes, it’s fairly difficult to become rich and live in a mansion. If it would be easy, and everyone could do it, it wouldn’t be the ultimate perfection, am I right? But often, people overlook the fact that they define perfection with one major feeling: Happiness. The purpose of living a perfect life is that people think that they can only be happy if they live the unreachable life. The life, they define as perfect, immaculate and pure.
Without offense: We, as the citizens of the western world, are living in luxury. We have all we need to survive, even more. We have enough money to go to school. To eat, drink and change our clothes. And we have a roof over our heads. Yes, we struggle with life sometimes. We have daily problems, sometimes we have problems with paying our bills. But, all in all, we have MORE than a big part of the world. There are people struggling with health. They don’t have clear water, enough food for a family of five or even a place to sleep. People struggle with things and conditions we take as granted. They clearly don’t live a perfect and fulfilled life. And I’m sure that you catch yourself being ungrateful sometimes, too.
I won’t judge you, I’m not in the place to do so since I’m not better. I complain about things which did not work out, but in the end, they weren’t important. We live in a place with perfect conditions. With luxury, only we can afford. This is something we have to accept before we can define perfection. Yes, as I said, perfection is defined differently by every individual. But I also said that happiness is the major aspect we aim to reach. The problem with our society is that we do not see things, which we take as granted, as indicators for our happiness. We think other things, which do not have anything to do with our surviving are essential to living happily.
I’m sure you thought that the example before was very exaggerated. That not everybody sees a mansion as a part of a perfect life. I’m sure, you have other imaginations about what would be perfect. But, everything that comes after surviving is just extra. From my point of view, people have issues accepting the base of our lives. We begin appreciating things we took as granted the moment they vanish. It’s like getting a cold: You begin missing the ability to breathe through your nose the moment it’s stuffed. Or like every summer, you complain about the heat and the moment it gets cold again, you miss summer weather.
My best friend and I talked about this ungratefulness a few months ago. We have everything we could wish for, like a family, health, eating until we explode. But, because one thing is missing, we think we are unhappy and sad and depressed. I repeat: It’s just one, tiny thing. Something, which will no longer be of meaning in the future. It’s something unessential. Something which will indeed happen in the future if we would wait patiently. But, just because we do not have this tiny something in this exact moment, we are unhappy. This is nothing but ungrateful. And, I could not be more ashamed.
I said: “Perfection is not an illusion.” And this is what I meant. Perfection is the ability to overlook tiny things which did not work out and still be happy. Having a perfect life is not difficult. Having luxury, on the other hand, is difficult. Being unhappy isn’t difficult, too. Being happy? Not difficult at all. It means, being grateful for everything you have. Overseeing the things you don’t have, thinking about its importance and coming to a closure. You don’t get everything you want but you also don’t have to! Ever noticed that people are never satisfied with what they have? People always want to have more. This has to stop so that we can be happy. So that, people see what they really have. What others don’t have. And what the real importance and purpose of life are.
I can assure you, perfection isn’t an illusion. It’s a state of mind and the amount of gratefulness.
