#020
1 June 2023
Reading time: 2:39 minutes

Nobody's perfect (not even me)

Yeh, I know, it sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? :D

Today we are continuing with the Wabi-sabi philosophy.
My previous two emails in which I discussed the first principles are "...it's time to be you #018" and "Avoid roadblocks in your path #019".

Why do I talk about Wabi-sabi?

Because it explains in simple terms the way to avoid anxiety and stress. Wabi-sabi makes you feel grounded, present in the moment and free of pressure.

Embracing the fact that you are not perfect is one of the ways how to do it. On the top, it gives you the ability to actually go out and do stuff instead of doubting yourself.

How does it work?

By abandoning your strive to make things perfect and starting to make things the best you can do them with your current state of knowledge, skills and abilities.

I am not telling you to neglect things. But here’s the reality check:

Perfection does not exist because imperfection is the natural state of life—you are whole, the entirety of you, as you are.

So whatever you do can never be perfect. Everything you do can be improved in one way or another. Heck, there is probably some Chinese prodigy kid who can do most of the things you do better, quicker and more efficiently. And that's totally fine.

Because you don't need to do things perfectly.

Imperfection is a natural way things are and you are no exemption. The goal here is not to stop trying to improve. The thing is to get a reality check, accept that whatever you do will not be perfect and work on ways to improve things in each new attempt.

In order to eliminate this negative stigma around imperfection, we need to realise that imperfection is not “the opposite” of perfection. Imperfection is not a compromise either. Imperfection is the true nature of things.

And that is actually the perfect state. It means that anything and everything (including you and me) can be improved.

As I said before, you should not strive for perfection. The aim is to do things to the best of your knowledge, skills and abilities you have at that time.

In other words, do your best to be the best that you can be.

When you look back at your life, I am sure that you can find a lot of things you would do much better today than you did back then. That means that you have grown, not that you have been bad at things.

Do you see where I am going with this?

All things in life, including you, are in an imperfect state of flux. Change (or betterment and growth) is the only constant. Everything is transient and nothing is ever complete. And that’s why perfection doesn’t exist.

When you stop freaking out about how badly you do something, you free yourself up to practice and improve over time. You do it badly now only in comparison to others who actually put in time and effort to improve. If you would look at them back in the times when they started, you would inevitably find that mostly they sucked too.

The other thing related to it is your natural proclivity towards some kinds of actions. You might be very bad at something and very good at something else. If you don't know what you are good at naturally, you didn't try enough things in your life.

Because you DO have some natural gifts. Everyone does.

You just need to find them. And the only way to find out what you are naturally gifted with is to test new things.

What is my today's advice?

  1. Stop trying to be perfect.
  2. Do your best.
  3. Learn from mistakes.
  4. Improve over time.
  5. Focus on finding the things you pick up and improve at easily.
  6. Be you, always.
And when you start to freak out that you are not perfect, sing to yourself along with John Legend:

'Cause all of me
Loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections



Love your perfect imperfections - quote from John Legend's song

Till next week ​
Lubo

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Thank you for reading.
See you next time.

Lubo

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