I am a perfectionist.

I overwork myself to ensure that everything I do is done exactly how I want it, and I set standards for myself that aren’t always achievable. I try my best to be flexible when things don’t go as planned, but I often struggle with frustration when problems arise. However, I’ve come to realize that by spending so much time obsessing over perfection, I’ve missed out on fully appreciating life.

Everyone faces problems whether they’re advertised or not, and everyone is guilty of making mistakes. While perfection is a nice concept, it isn’t a realistic one. You can’t get a perfect score on every test, you can’t always accomplish everything you feel you need to, and there really is no such thing as a “perfect” day in theory.

However, all of my flaws and everything that goes wrong in my life is what makes me unique. We are shaped by our experiences, both positive and negative, and all of the things that have gone wrong in my life have helped make me who I am today.

However, I’ve spent so much time trying to avoid experiencing anything less than perfect that I have neglected to see how important failure truly is. I have learned that while it is important to try my best in everything I do, constantly striving for perfection isn’t necessarily a good thing to do as doing so will simply lead to a constant feeling of failure and will lead me to fail to find the good in the not so good experiences I face.

Life is full of learning opportunities, and some of the greatest of these opportunities are found in our flaws and failures. While perfection is something that is easy to get hung up on, I have learned that it is crucial to let go of the concept of perfection.

A lack of perfection is what makes us unique, teaches us some of our greatest lessons, and constantly shapes us to be the people that we are. While I will continue to strive to be the best I can be, I’ll do the best I can to accept the problems life throws my way and allow myself to let go of the idea of perfect as I’ve found holding onto it often causes more harm than good.