Being perfect and doing the right is what they teach us from the very beginning of life. Being PERFECT is what humans portray and hope themselves to be. But there is a flip side.
I want to tell you a story, a story of a little boy.
He tried to be perfect,
But that made him imperfect.
Now when he has stopped trying,
He realised that he was perfectly imperfect.
So once, there was a little boy, Barry. Barry was different from other kids. He grasped the words quickly and had a great learning power. People said he was God Gifted. From the very childhood, he was taught “Perfection is the Best.” and So he followed. In his journey to being perfect, He was taught how to do things right and PERFECT and as a result, he emerged as a very bright student. He was good at all the stuff, from academics to sports to music. He was the star of his school. Everyone praised him for his generous behavior, his extraordinary capabilities in academics, his amazing skills in sports and all the qualities he possessed. He was the ideal child that people admire.
But no one realised that something wrong was going on. Something was missing!! But what?? What can be wrong with such a brilliant boy?? OK, here is how he himself found out.
Once Barry was representing his school in a marathon race. It was his final year in school. He was the obvious choice and it was not any ordinary race, it was the prestigious Inter-School Athletes’ Cup final. Everyone from Barry’s school was confident that This year they will grab the trophy because this time it was Barry, their own star, their own prodigy. Barry, himself had practiced a lot for the race. He also prepared a farewell speech as it was his last competition which he was playing for his school. Although he was fully confident but he never underestimated his competitors but respected them. He had a surprisingly positive attitude.
And so that was the day. Barry was fully prepared. All the athletes were on the starting positions and then with a blow of whistle, the race started. It was a 1200 meters race. They all started running with their full strength. Crowd was cheering for its star, which gave Barry more confidence and he ran with his full effort.
It was 600 meters and Barry was way ahead of his opponents. But then suddenly his ankle twisted and he fall down hurting his leg. He was in immense pain. His feet couldn’t move. But crowd was amazing as it continued to cheer him up in a hope that he will stand.
But he couldn’t. His opponents crossed him one by one and he struggled. He struggled hard but couldn’t stand and at last he lost.
His first lose in his school life and that in front of his admirers. It was a huge emotional setback for him. He could not stand the immense pain of losing. It was the first time in life he was feeling disappointed of himself. That defeat shook his confidence a lot and affected his performance in school. His grades started falling down. His confidence was extensively shaken. And the worst part was, it affected his admission tests for the College. Thus, a defeat in the race affected his whole career and thus his whole life.
But, Why do you think this happened?? Why did a small incident had such a great effect on him??
Answer is simple There was a flaw, a flaw implanted in him from the very childhood. He was made to live in a myth of Perfection whereas the reality is that there doesn’t exist anything called, Perfection. Perfection is just a dream we are shown by others.
Barry was only taught to do things rightly. But, what he needed to learn was to try doing the things irrespective of the outcome. This would open up a whole new field of possibilities for him. Through this approach, He might not come out to be perfect and he may fall. But he would find the right way to stand again and even if he fails to stand, he will learn to bear with the fact that he failed. Learning to commit mistakes and bearing with fact that I failed is what he lacked.
So one should never try to be perfect rather He should try to be better, better than the previous him. No one can be perfect and if someone tries or claims to be, he is just the most imperfect person, you can find. After all, Mistakes are the essential part of Human Being.
Not learning to be imperfect makes us a worse person, worse than a normal person. So, one should commit lots and lots of mistake because that might lead you to the PERFECTION.
