Saturday, May 1, 2010

Thought 101: Aim at Perfection but settle for what is practicable


Some persons are so obsessed with perfection that they start agonizing over not finding it. Of course, they cannot find perfection here – because this is an imperfect world. In the real world, everything exists as an amalgam – of good and bad, of pure and impure, of superior and inferior, of decent and indecent, of excellent and non-excellent, of sincere and insincere, of honest and dishonest, etc.

You may aim at “perfection” - but be willing to settle for “what is possible”. You may be excellent - but tolerate others who are not.

"Every problem has a solution but every solution also has a problem", says Dr Robert Anthony. There is no such thing as a perfect solution to any problem.

In a real world situation, there is no such thing as perfection or excellence. "Perfection and excellence are only journeys but not destinations - you never reach there" says, Brian Tracy. We know that theoretically, there are "absolute zero", "perfect vacuum" and "ideal gas". We also know that we cannot hope to attain any of them to the theoretically predicted value. We can only reach to some thing very close to the theoretically predicted limit, but not exactly to the predicted value.

The fact that you cannot achieve perfection or excellence, should not stop you from aiming at them. "If you aim at a golden frock, you may get a sleeve of it", said Oliver Goldsmith, the noted English poet. Just because you know that you cannot get it, you should not stop aiming at the ideal. There will be no progress, if you stop aiming at the ideal.

The next thought is about “Have tolerance for some imperfection”

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