Apr 13, 2019
Imperfection is Alright!
Success and failure are inevitable parts of our journey in life. Despite knowing this, it can be disheartening when we experience failure while pursuing our goals. As someone who constantly strives for perfection and tends to overthink, I have personally struggled with this feeling. However, through a combination of personal experiences and insights gained from friends, bosses, and teachers, I have gained valuable lessons that have helped me navigate these challenges. In this article, I want to share these lessons with you and offer some guidance on how to approach success and failure in a more productive way. (Though I am too small to be called successful).
The significance of imperfections:
Coming from a non-programming background, I used to feel the pressure to write perfect code from the very beginning. However, I soon realized that this mindset was causing me more harm than good. I learned that imperfection is a natural part of the learning process and that it’s essential to take the first step and write that initial code, even if it’s not perfect.
One day, while comparing my code to that of my peers, I felt discouraged and sought the advice of the CEO of our startup. He reminded me that everyone starts somewhere and that it’s okay to make mistakes and learn from them. The only person we should strive to compete with is ourselves from yesterday, not others or the entire universe.
Through this experience, I’ve come to realize that continuous learning and growth are crucial in the field of programming. We should never stop trying to improve and should always strive to be better than we were yesterday.
Importance of the present:
The second lesson I learned came from a friend who always reminded me to “Aaj Mein Jee” — live in the present moment. Often, when we embark on a task, we get lost in our thoughts, dwelling on past regrets or anxiously worrying about the future. We may be haunted by negative memories or consumed by future uncertainties. But dwelling on these negative thoughts serves no purpose. It’s natural for us to have these biases towards negativity, as we tend to remember our failures more vividly than our successes.
The lesson is to let go of the baggage of our past failures and focus on the small moments happening around us today. It’s easy to get lost in the grand scheme of things, but it’s the little things that truly matter. Whether it’s a beautiful sunset or a kind word from a friend, it’s these small, fleeting moments that make life worth living. So, let’s learn to appreciate and cherish the present moment, for that’s where true happiness lies.
Learn from your failures :
I once heard a story that perfectly captures the importance of experience over perfection. In this experiment, a class was divided into two groups and each group was asked to make a clay pot, but under different conditions. The first group was instructed to make as many pots as they could within a 15-day period, and they were evaluated solely on the number of pots they produced, regardless of their quality. The second group, on the other hand, was tasked with making only one pot, but it had to be perfect, and they were evaluated solely on the perfection of that one pot.
Interestingly, every time this experiment was conducted, the first group always made better pots than the second group. Why? Because the first group was too busy making pots, failing, and learning from their mistakes, while the second group was too focused on making the perfect pot. When they finally produced their one perfect pot, it was nowhere near the quality of the first group’s pots.
The lesson here is clear: don’t strive for perfection right from the outset. Perfection is the result of experience and learning from mistakes. The more we do, the more we fail, and the more we learn, the closer we get to perfection. So, don’t be afraid to fail and don’t be too focused on achieving perfection in one go. Embrace the learning process, and perfection will come naturally.
Everything is in our mind:
In conclusion, success and failure are both important parts of life. It’s essential to accept imperfections and learn from them, live in the present, and not be obsessed with perfectionism.
The story of the clay pot experiment teaches us that experience and continuous improvement are more important than striving for perfection in one go.
Lastly, we should always take care of our mind and nurture it daily, for it can work wonders in our lives if we let it. By applying these learnings, we can overcome our fears, grow as individuals, and achieve success in our personal and professional lives. Remember, the key to success is to keep moving forward, one step at a time.
All to best to everyone including me! :) Let us end up with this video.
