Hello there, thank you for taking the time to read my blog and welcome to the unfiltered truth of everyday living. In this week’s post we will be unpacking “perfection”, one of the unspoken poisons which have continued to infiltrate society.
I believe that many of us, myself included live or have lived under false and unrealistic expectations of achievements, which result in us wanting expedited results. I believe that wanting and desiring supreme excellence results in us missing what God would have already had in store for us and not only that, I also believe that the sense of wanting to achieve infinite excellence could also cause internal warfare.
In other words, the illusion of wanting things (picture) perfect and editing out the raw version of our stories and end results may cause us to experience hurt, depression and disappointment to say the least.
In this post, we will be examining:
- What is perfection?
- How do we try to achieve perfection?
- How to avoid the trap of perfection
What is perfection
Perfection, according to the Bible dictionary is an inherent or essential attribute of supreme or infinite excellence; or one perfect in its kind; as the perfections of God. The infinite power, holiness, justice, benevolence, and wisdom of God are denominated His perfections.
So as a people I believe we are subconsciously or consciously trying and are tempted to inherit supreme excellence. In other words, I believe we are trying to achieve something that we were never made to achieve; perfection.
Now where on earth am I getting all of this from? Why do I have the guts to think that Homo sapiens subconsciously or consciously desire to inherit supreme excellence?
Follow me to the Bible, “God knows that your eyes will be opened as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” (Genesis 3:5 NLT)
Did not God already make us in His own image? Weren’t we already made to be like Him? (Genesis 1:26 NLT)
Could it be that from then on, we were prone to not be fully satisfied with what we already have and tend to seek more?
Could it be that the same temptation Eve experienced we too are experiencing? How else could we be more like God if we were already made to be like Him by Him?
Was the desire to know more so appealing that Eve stopped seeing the forbidden fruit and began seeing fruit which was good to eat?
Are we so caught up in our desires that what we would normally see as poison no longer looks like poison anymore?
I believe that these questions lead us to our point of view: ‘striving for perfection is one of the poisons that has infiltrated society.’
Do you think you are a perfectionist?
How do we try to achieve perfection?
I would go as far to say that we really don’t communicate the real process of our achievements/successes. We have started to believe in overnight sensations and creating a reality of making people think that how we tells our story affects our success.
Perfection and hard work are two different things. While hard work signifies the intensity of the process, whether it may be a perceived fail or an achievement, we get to see and experience the process, we get to endure the real thing.
Whereas perfection glorifies the achieved end result, it’s all about how something looked; forgetting the hard work, looking at the new shiny object and how it just ‘came’ to be.
Perfection would never show us something that didn’t end up right, we would never be able to learn from perfection.
Perfection creates the illusion of great status. Whenever we buy into perfection, we buy into an idea, a perception and not the actual thing.
How many of us have heard this or experienced it?
‘Be careful what you tell the people, give out information, but not too much though because they might think you’re actually a loser, or not like the real you. We want them to think that you are doing great. We want them to look up to you as their beacon of hope. They should think, if you made it, so can they. We need them to buy into your brand.’
This example is something I believe most of us go through. It causes us to externalise our wins and internalise our set backs and hard work. We show each other our trophies so much that we are afraid to show each other the real deal.
Now, I’m not saying hang your dirty laundry for everyone to see. What I’m saying is that we should be transparent with each other and be able to show the set backs, the hard work as much as we show the rewards and not create a perception that it is only through supreme excellence that things are achieved.
What happens when we try to achieve perfection?
Firstly, we can never achieve perfection because if we could, we wouldn’t need God and to be quite honest with you, I think the need to present perfection comes from wanting to hide the imperfections.
We work so hard trying to keep up face that we never get the time to reflect on ourselves, we never get the time to heal, talk things out or be normal. It’s very hard work to keep up a facade. For instance, we’d be so busy trying to keep the perfect perception that we won’t be able to pay attention to the other things which may be falling apart in the background.
How to avoid the trap of perfection
1. We need to understand that God is in control, yes, He controls the outcome. (Proverbs 16:33 MSG). So, it’s not about how (picture) perfect something is, and to note that the outcome isn’t always what we would like for it to be. For example, my outcome with all I have been trying to do led me to understand what my purpose is, I may not be a millionaire however, I know why I’m here.
- I stopped chasing perception and started gaining perspective.
2. We should do everything as if we’re doing it for the Lord, not for others. (Colossians 3:24 NLT).
- When we are clear on pleasing the Lord, we minimise wanting to please mankind and a chance to be influenced by everything else.
3. Know who we are in Christ. Our identity in Christ matters so much that it protects us from society’s perceptions & influence, it becomes harder to be convinced that following perceptions is the way to go when we already know who we are.
- If Eve understood that she was already created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26 NLT), she would not have thought that eating the fruit would make her to be more like God.
4. Our best is good enough. Don’t let the results determine the outcome. The process (what we’ve learnt or unlearnt) is what I believe is the important outcome.
- Hard work doesn’t always result in the success we would hope for, however, whatever the outcome is, could be the boost we need to progress with other things.
Conclusion
I would like to encourage us to make peace with the fact that we cannot in all understanding reach perfection and understand that we are already perfected through Christ.
Something may begin so finite and yet have dire consequences at the end.
With Atusaye Boutique, there was a time I spent my days & nights working on my socials, making sure the videos I posted were (picture) perfect, with the right filter and right content. The time I decided to stop chasing likes and follows was when I got ahold of this timetable which indicated what time and day was the best time to post (as I laugh).
I think I tried it for a week and one day the Holy Spirit was like, ‘uhm Lelo, what are you doing? You don’t even get sales through Instagram?’ I was like whaaaaaaaaaaaat? What am I doing?
Long story short, I took a break from everything and began gaining more perspective on who I am, what I am doing, why I am doing it and so forth. …and guess what, here I am, writing, who would have thought right?
I tried a lot of things which didn’t end up where I thought they would have ended up, however, they are now renewed and have purpose. I am excited for the journey ahead and can’t wait to see what the Lord does with Atusaye Boutique and newly added, Elisha’s Prints.
Things didn’t go my way, but I am certain they are going the Lord’s way, and along the process one of the things I had to do was to drop being a perfectionist. I do fall back to it sometimes, but I am glad that the Lord reminds me that He’s in control, and then I start all over again and this time put the perfectionist perception aside.
What is in your life that keeps you being a perfectionist? Would you say that striving to do things perfect affects you?
Always remember to take the time to read the word of God, nothing can replace its wisdom.