There is no Perfection Olympics
Failure will always feel better than regret
Failure will always feel better than regret. -Jess Ekstrom
We spend much of our lives trying to avoid failure. I’d like to explore a few reasons as to why this is the case:
We want to show up as perfect to those around us. We want people at work, our social media “friends,” or people we see in the restaurant to think we have it all together. It’s like the FOMO you feel when your staycation Spring Break doesn’t measure up to that perfect family on their ski vacation.
Failure feels like we’ve fallen short of someone else’s expectations. Who is that someone for you? Is it a parent, a grade school teacher, a coworker, or a friend whispering in your ear, saying that you’ve missed the mark?
We’re afraid that a failure will forever define our future. I recall a work situation from more than a decade ago that I struggled with for several weeks, thinking that life as I defined it was over.
By the time we graduate college, we’ve spent 16 years brainwashed into thinking that perfection is king and failure is, well, for those who can’t hack it. We are conditioned to believe that failure means we have not lived up to the world's expectations. Ask yourself these questions: Who sets these standards? Who decides what success is and what it isn’t?
Failure is the only way to grow and become who you were meant to be. Learning from it creates positive momentum. Let’s go through the 3 items above one by one and create a new narrative:
There is no Perfection Olympics. Perfection is based on comparison alone. No one gets an award for achieving it on the last day of their life.
Create your own standards for success. No one has the power to define those for you unless you give it to them.
Failure is never forever. That work challenge I referenced? Today, it is about as painful as licking a 9-volt battery.
Perfection is based on comparison alone.
No one gets an award for achieving it on the last day of their life
We don’t know how many days we have left. Don’t regret the chances you didn’t take. You are capable of so much more than you can imagine. God gifted you with unique skills and talents that no one else has. There is no one like you! Don’t let anyone else define you. Chart your own path!
Start this week by doing something for someone else. Go impact the world around you and make it better!
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So true Mike. It’s been my experience that you have to fight against the current the river is flowing to paddle in the opposite direction. The only way to grow is to try, fail, dry yourself off and try a different angle. Thanks for reading and for your helpful comments!
I'm late to this but loved it! 2 kids = adjusting time management AND working on "16 years of brainwashed messaging" (and more thanks to grad schools...) :)