Is perfection really unattainable?

From a very young age, we each begin accepting messages that reinforce we're anything but perfect.  Society bombards us with reasons to question our self-image, our comfort zone, and our overall self-view.  What are your early memories of not being good enough? 

You may reflect on school, athletics, creative endeavors, physical growth where you compared yourself to other people.  Maybe they seemed to receive more praise or encouragement.  Each person who seemed better than you reinforced your deficiencies.

You may have developed ways to measure yourself against levels and standards set by other people.  Why do you exert effort in an attempt to live as other people believe you should? How can you expect to live up to changing ideals over which you exert no control?

As you evolve inside yourself, you begin to grasp how standards of perfection set by other human beings could be ever-shifting, increasing, decreasing and hard to follow.  Its unrealistic to believe you can shapeshift at the same pace and evolve into what someone else wants.  What you can do is reframe your sense of happiness to measure perfection.

Obscure notions of perfection stem from other people. These ideas are hard to pin down.  From a spiritual point of view, being connected to forces beyond you remind you that you are a sentient being of perfection.  You are perfect as you are.  This means you need not exert effort to please others or take steps to evolve into something you're not. 

What if the love inside you is a sign of your innate perfection?  What if you need not struggle?  What if happiness is not a carrot at the end of a stick you must pursue?  If your understanding of perfection is based on temporary, changing, and external conditions, it may seem unattainable.  Yet, if you sense that perfection is a synonym for infinite love energy inside and around you, then you realize its static and accessible always. 

Curiously, you may evolve to think the concept of self-improvement is problematic.  If you sense this implies things are wrong with you that require fixing, then you begin to see how the fallacy is perpetuated in culture and your mind. You live the life you believe.  You dream about what you don't have or experience or, you dream about all the wonderful things you already are.  Some people fluctuate in-between.  Where do you stand now?

Comments

[selvy]

Gratefully, I'm standing where I want to be standing. I wished I have realized this at earlier point of my life, but then, I'm glad I realize it every now and then and I thank you very much for bringing back a beautiful sense into my recently chaotic life.Very inspirational indeed. ;)

[Liara Covert]

Selvy, it may be tempting to reflect back on where you've been and what you've experienced based on who you are today. As you evolve inside yourself, it no longer makes no sense to judge or regret. Each choice, feeling and experience shapes your evolution. Each part has helped you get to where you are. The core of who you are is based on expanding perception. The more attuned to that you become, the more aware you realize you already are. To sense gratitude is a way you open yourself to self-love.

[Kudzu Fire]

for many of us, what passes for perfection is contentment. And I can't say that I see much harm in that. You have to do a certain amount of striving to make a living, keep peace in the family and hold your conscience at bay. But the kind of striving required to say, loose some toes on mount Everest. I will pass. Contentment is all in all, close enough.

[Liara Covert]

Kudzu Fire, I like your analogy. We each evolve to clarify what contributes to our own sense of contentment. After watching a group of Mount Everest climbers on National Geo tv, I realize not everyone associates inner peace with taking such a risk. Dream if you will and make the choices that work for you. After all, you have to live with them.