Perfection

There is nothing perfect. And it is not a big issue.

The big issue is always trying to pretend that everything is perfect.

All pretend they are perfect. Or sometimes, all pretend that they are in a perfectly bad situation. Its the same.

On the other hand, we can't forego the pursuit of perfection, or excellence. In the worst case, we are donkeys and it is a carrot hanging in front of our noses. Gets things done and all.

The biggest thing, in my opinion is to remember that
1. Perfection is a long term thing, not the next thing I am to do.
2. The only perfect thing to do right now is to do something.
3. Procrastinating for the perfect moment/thing/task is worse than the not-so-perfect I have right now.
4. As long as I am in a better position than yesterday/last week/last month etc., I am doing fine.

There was a book I read a few years back, called To Kill a Mockingbird. It was about racial tolerance in an American town. Not exactly related to what I tried to put up here, the children's dad (the lawyer and shooter, Atticus) said something like this:

Courage is when you know you are licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. 

No more stressing from now on!

Throughout our lives, we are taught to handle stress. We are made to live with it. Seems like stress is as much of a part of our lives as the air we breathe. We use it as a tool, to get ourselves to work on something, to get others to work on something, and hell, even to just feel like we are making progress.

I do not know about others, but stress is was my constant companion since the age of 9-10, when I first prepared for the test for Sainik School. Then the four years I spent there, came back, had board exams, prepared (unsuccessfully) for IIT, got into college, messed the initial semesters and played catch-up for the rest of the degree and in the end, to top it all up, got my first job.

The amount of time I end up spending at the office (or outside of home, considering an hour's drive to the office) makes used to make me go mad. The worst thing is was no time to think! Add to it the fact that I had some other thoughts/plans which I could not cater to, I am was plainly unsatisfied. And being a naive fatass at work doesn't didn't help, either.

Then to about three weeks from today. About 8:30 pm. I am driving to home. And I have this amazing what-the-hell moment.

I thought, I am 21 right now. I've spent like somewhere between one-third to one-fourth of my life until now, and considering the fact that I will never get my adolescence/teenage/whatever back, I can either keep on worrying over everything or I can start enjoying life. Thankfully, I chose the second. Surprisingly, some people do not worry at all. Never. One such person, Vics, told me that I was way too late to realise this.
Since then, I've been thinking a lot on the issue of avoidable stress. Seems like we humans use our ability to think too much. When we are stuck while trying to get something done, we try simulating the end results in our minds, except that the things we simulate/imagine are nowhere near to what actually will/would happen. We realise this a bit too late for our own good, and by the time we do so, it is generally too late to give up on the simulation/imagination that has already been brewing in our think-able brains. And this clash of thoughts, of two completely different outcomes is the cause of stress.

"Stress is good. Tension is your friend! It gets things done!" This is what people everywhere in the world think, and preach to each other. Well, so many people saying the same thing can't all be wrong, but there is one basic difference between using stress and using some dream, ambition or some tangible reason as your motivator. The difference is:

With ambition, we play to win. With stress, we play to not lose.

Not actually playing, but I think its enough to get the idea. The playing to not lose part comes to even more prominence when there are reputations or track records to salvage.

What others think of me is not my problem. Not that it should be. Especially since I started this blog, and even more so since the great realisation! Some days tend to be more strenuous than others, but I am learning to handle it, thanks in no small part to some of my friends at the office.

MEMO TO MYSELF: Read this post whenever under too much stress. The world can suck its own dick.