Dear perfectionists,

Have you already started scanning this article for typos? Take a deep breathe, relax and let the mistakes happen. I know how it can be being a perfectionist. There are good aspects like having the ability to create a kick butt poster board. Plus, your handwriting is always perfection. Your perfectly organized notes are the envy of everyone in your economics class. Being a perfectionist can be an incredible advantage in the professional and educational world; however, it can cause some issues as well.

Life is imperfect. Life is complicated. Life not only welcomes, but embraces mistakes. Being a perfectionist, it can be hard not to expect "perfection" in all of life's circumstances. That being said, nothing can be perfect. You cannot expect the person you love to never make a mistake or to just inherently correct their actions to please you. You cannot expect your project for work to launch without any failure. You cannot expect for everything you plan to go exactly as you plan it.

That last part is especially hard for perfectionists; you spend much of your time planning for success, but often it doesn't matter how much good intent and planning one puts in, struggle and failure is at times inevitable. If you ever want to know how disappointing a well-thought-out plan failing is, ask the team that got second place at the Super Bowl. The athletes spent hours, days, weeks, months, years and even lifetimes readying themselves for this day; the day they would compete for the Super Bowl championships. Yet despite all their effort, they lost. It is not that the other team planned better, necessarily. Sometimes, the best of plans go awry.

So, perfectionists, I want you to know that you are blessed people. You have the ability to be organized, timely, reliable and so much more. However, you must balance your expectations with reality. Nothing can ever go perfectly. The sooner you realize that welcoming challenges will make you a better human being, the sooner you will find true happiness. So here's to you, perfectionists everywhere; you are good, but you can always be better and that is a good thing. If you were already the best you could be, then life would be boring. Growing and maturing is a beautiful part of life, and you get to be imperfectly perfect perfectionists!