But that fact cannot, should not, stop someone for seeking the achievement. Taken further, “If you look for perfection, you'll never be content.” (Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina). That quote is powerful. Given various goals I have in front of me, I do not want to be content. We should never be content, rather we should be discontent and always look towards perfection.
Yet...
...Still, perfection does not exist, for the common understanding of the idea - 'free from all flaws or defects' - leaves us striving for the impossible. And 'strive' is an excellent word in this context for it carries a negative connotation of strain, effort, or laborious endeavor. Not that such a struggle is not worth it, but instead that there is a sense of inevitable failure, and such an anticipation of failure can be self creating of defeat. It can de-energize.
So setting a seemingly unachievable goal, can create the condition of inability to reach such a goal. The solution? We should recognize that perfection is not about 'free from all flaws or defects'. No. Instead, we should choose to act within a process of improving until the focus of our effort can be as free as possible from flaws or defects. As free as possible - this phrasing empowers. It removes the sense of the impossible.
Consider the words of Salvador Dalí “Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it.”
What happens when we put this together with the thought of Tolstoy?
Do not fear discontent. If fact, choose discontent. Use it to embrace the process of making things as free as possible from flaws or defects. To be energized to move forward. We should run towards perfection.
Tolstoy's words are correct.
Perfection is not the word for what we want to be.
No. In looking for perfection, we should choose to be discontented.
