Perfection

Lately, I rediscovered The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross which gave me some insight on how perfectionism is a type of bondage.

I’m a perfectionist; it’s a super power when I work with an extreme level of detail like software development but the downsides are chronically debilitating. I’m in a constant state of inaction because I desire the perfect moment to act.

Lately, I rediscovered The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross which gave me some insight on how perfectionism is a type of bondage.

Watching Ross paint, you immediately notice the imperfections on the canvas but he is not controlling his strokes with meticulous precision. Ross just paints; he makes mistakes, or “happy accidents” as he famously says, then regains control, and repeats. Everything appears sort of random and yet, the painting ends up “perfect”.

That’s when it dawned on me. Perfection is a state of “no-analysis” or as the Daoists would say, “no-mind”.

I’m continually analysing every detail which increases the friction to act, mainly because I can’t find “perfection” and conjure up little excuses. Not the case with Ross, he doesn’t pay too much attention to details. He goes with the flow, laughing as he wacks his brush against the easel, and dances with the canvas in a state of joy.

Fortunately, we all possess his joy, it’s actually an innate instinct. To illustrate, all of us will fawn over “how perfect” a natural landscape is. None of us are analysing the “tiny errors” Mother Nature makes, despite a near infinite number of them.

So why don’t we suspend our analytical mind more? Why do we play perfectionist mental games that stop us from acting and achieving bliss?

Maybe we never realized we ARE nature and have to remind ourselves to embrace ourselves like we are seeing ourselves as a beautiful landscape. We are perfect, no matter the little errors we may see.

Photo by Mark Harpur on Unsplash

Perfection, therefore, is a non-analytical perspective. Nothing more and nothing less.

Word count: 305 (I intentionally went over because I thought my essay was “perfect”)
Twitter: @bhavprajapati

52 | 250 (fifty two | two fifty), a collection of random, recurring, ruminations written with patience for depth and brevity. Each post is written over the course of a week in 250 words or less as a personal exercise of freedom and focus in a time of placid tumult and despair.