“All of us are imperfect beings living in an imperfect world.” ~ Haruki Murakami. Most, if not all of us, have that lingering idea in the back of our brain to always strive for perfection, to always reach for that perfect score in an exam, to never make mistakes, to live perfect lives. It’s a natural thought as human beings always want for more and to be more. We are never content. But at the end of the day, we live in a world where everything is anything but perfect, so who are we to think we can be any different? Some may see this statement as a sad or skeptical way of thinking, but to me, this is the exact opposite. In fact, I believe that it is our imperfections and acceptance of it that defines happiness.
I personally have a lot of faults. I’ve made many mistakes in the past and have countless bad habits. I procrastinate. I’m quite lazy. The list goes on. But my personal belief is that I shouldn’t bring myself down because of these habits or become overly conscious of these characteristics. There are a lot of people that live their lives overshadowed by their weaknesses and become swallowed by them. These people are wholly encompassed by the idea that “I’m not good enough” or “I’m not doing enough.” Instead, I choose to focus on more positive aspects of my life such as my strengths. By focusing on your own strengths and not allowing yourself to be swallowed by your weaknesses, your own mindset and overall outlook on life changes, like it did for me. All it takes is a little bit of thought and reflection. At the end of the day, everyone has their own faults so why should you allow yourself to be depressed by a bad habit or lack of a good one when everyone is also lacking in other aspects? In my opinion, this difference in your mindset can make a huge difference. It differentiates those who are unhappy with themselves, and those who aren’t necessarily satisfied, but are happy and have come to terms with both their faults and strong points.
In the beginning of quarantine, I noticed that I had a lot of time on my hands. My days would be preoccupied with trivial pastimes like video games and TV shows. Sooner rather than later, it became repetitive. During this time, I also had set out goals that I would accomplish like working out and doing more productive things. But I would put them off to either tomorrow, or later in the day. However, after realising and reflecting on this, towards the middle of the quarantine, I started consistently exercising and pushing myself to fix my bad habit of procrastinating. This procrastination still continues to be a prevalent bad habit that I would personally like to fix. But what’s most important to me is that I didn’t allow myself to be sad or consumed by it. I didn’t allow myself to have a negative attitude towards characteristics that I lack, while at the same time, still working towards improving.
Although my example is something small like working out, the principle still applies. One doesn’t become unhappy or worth any less than others if they have their own faults or bad habits. It’s something that everyone has and isn’t something that people should be afraid of, nor should they be consumed by. With even just a little bit of time for reflection and serious thought, anyone can improve on themselves, while at the same time being happy with how they are. Take me for example. I’m not even close to being an ideal version of myself, even more so perfect, but after coming to terms with the fact that no one is, I’m more than satisfied and grateful for both my weaknesses and strengths, and happily continue to work towards a better version of myself while keeping in mind that I’ll never become perfect and that’s okay. This is something I believe to be an important key to being both self-aware of yourself and those around you and not to mention, becoming happy with the person that you are, regardless of your own faults.
