Is it worth being perfect

Should I spend all my effort and time trying to be perfect, or should I spend my time enjoying myself and let others call me imperfect?

Since childhood, I have been constantly compared with my siblings and other kids, how they are studying hard day and night to get good marks, how they are disciplined in life, how they get up early in morning and study, they don’t watch TV, etc. etc. etc. I am sure lot of us would have gone through similar torture. Once you are compared with others, and if you take it seriously, there is no way you can win that battle.

As I grew older, I somehow managed to get into Engineering. I hardly cleared my first year, and was struggling in my second year. I was very demotivated and I could not really understand where I was going wrong, I started questioning my abilities, etc. I was fortunate to speak to one of my friend’s father, he understood my problems. He asked me what the problem was, was I not really understanding the concepts or was I really interested in Engineering, etc. My answer to him was, my parents had expectations, my friends are doing better, etc. All my answers were about others. That’s where he pointed out at me. your problem is, your life is full of others, but where is “me or I” in it. That’s where it really made me think, he was right. I had almost stopped thinking of myself, and was more focused on others. I changed my thought process, I then started focussing on learning and gave myself some goals and targets. I started thinking more in terms of what I want to be, understand my strengths and limitations and things that make me happy. I then started focussing on outdoor activities and at the same time focussed on my educational goals. This really helped me a lot, I scored first class in my 2nd year, then distinction in 3rd and 4th years.

There is nothing called perfect in this life. We all humans are the creation of God, we all have the same features, but none of us look the same. Instead of looking for perfectness in yourself, we should rather identify that uniqueness in yourself. It is fine to be lazy once in a while, it is fine to do mistakes so we learn from it, it is perfectly fine if you don’t wake up everyday at 6 AM, perfectly fine if you don’t wear ironed clothes, perfectly fine if you are not the top scorer in school, sports or career. But what is not fine is, you are spending those extra hours trying to be perfect and losing on opportunities where you would have been more happy in life. I am not saying give up and don’t challenge yourself, you need to put effort into improving yourself without worrying about others around you. you will never be able to satisfy others and be perfect for them, rather be perfect for yourself by not getting into competition to prove others your worth.