Embracing Imperfection

While I was going through things in my mom's house last month I came across all my records from Pre School through High School.  This included everything from awards, programs of school plays, and report cards.  Looking through report cards through grade school there would be comments every quarter from the teachers and then a space for parents to leave comments back.  My sister and I found it funny that there would be teacher comments that said things like "Paula is bright", "Paula is a joy in class," etc and my mom's comments were always "Paula could do better."

I can laugh about it now, but I remember always being stressed out by my weaknesses and areas where I wasn't "perfect" (yes that still freaks me out).  I don't think my mom made comments like that to be mean, I think they were meant to push me to do even better, but is good enough at something such a bad thing?

Photo by Greg McMullin 

I sometimes stress out because I see people around me who are brilliant in ways I could never dream of. They tend to excel in one particular area and shine brighter than everyone else.  I'm not like that and I never have been.  I'm good at lots of things, but I've never found one thing that I'm great at.  Maybe that isn't such a bad thing though.

Think about it.  Would you rather have a friend who was one of the following: the best listener, the most thoughtful, the smartest, etc or would you rather have a friend who was a good listener, thoughtful, smart etc?  The people I admire most both personally and professionally are people who seem to do well in a number of areas, but aren't necessarily a rock star in one particular sector of their lives.  They don't have to be because being good at a lot of little things adds up to being a great person.  So the lesson to be had is to give myself a break.  I don't want to kill myself trying to be great when I think I could be happy with just being good.