We all strive towards perfection in anything that we can think of. For some of us it’s the way things are; the way we view the world and understand life in general; the only way we know of.
For others though, it’s a constant struggle between being better by the day, and trying too hard to make that difference.
And being creatures of comfort, often times we let the strong grip we established in our path to self-improvement loosened, thus seeing ourselves as not worthy enough, experiencing the whole scenario quite negatively, as a failure, even.
And that is not entirely our fault, sort to speak.
I will try and explain myself why I believe that this mindset is forced upon us to an extent, and how should we act in order to hinder all the negativity while still being able to strive for that perfection, all the while preserving sanity.
Society dictates unreasonable rhythm
If you stop for a second and take a closer look, you will come to realize that society desperately tries to educate us in being this way or another.
We are being taught how to eat, how to adopt healthy habits, how to be more productive, more innovative, creative, more social… you name it. In the same time we are being taught how to be happy, less stressed, enjoy life.
Now the thing is that not one of the teachers from our society is the mixture of all that together.
So how can it be expected from us to fit this description?
It is impossible for any of us to be perfect in everything.
But no one admits that, and so we go with our lives, thinking that we are not doing enough, not trying hard enough, when the truth is something entirely different.
You see the pictures posted on Facebook by the running page you are a fan of, and instantly feel the guilt that you didn’t put your shoes today and ran those 5k.
Why?
Why should you feel that way?
You did tons of stuff too. Why no one gives you the credit for that?
And now let me paraphrase the question. Why don’t YOU give yourself the credit?
You see, society did its job so well, that now you are your own teacher when it comes to setting the unreasonable phase in which you should improve yourself.
Now you are the one doing all the pressure. Passing the guilt upon yourself, even being angry at times.
In the end it’s an endless chase around the maypole where no one ever wins.
Change your perception; it will change your mindset
The thing here is to realize that none of us is perfect.
So instead of beating our heads over it, we are better off trying to balance and start implementing some good habits that we have picked up along the way.
We can also sometimes allow ourselves to slow our phase down, learning not to feel guilty about it.
Yes, we can have that pizza, for instance; we can stay late at night to watch that movie; we can do the set of 8 instead the set of 12.
As long as we are doing some effort towards living better and improving ourselves in any way, there is no need for being obsessed over it.
I believe that the biggest difference in those who are obsessed and tricked by society is realism, or lack thereof, that they have.
With balance there comes happiness
Nothing is good for us if in excess.
Nor is something good or bad just by itself. We are the ones labeling whatever that we do, so we better stop pushing ourselves too hard by appointing some unachievable standards.
We can however, try when possible to make that healthy choice for us, preserving sanity while not hindering improvement.
Balance is everything if you think about it. So having that realized, we must decide being persistent over obsessed, give ourselves credit over constantly being self-criticizing and unrealistic.
Many of us try to constantly improve themselves, and just as much fail in their expectations. This different perception over it however, may just be the thing you need to tilt things in your favor.