Reflections on Perfection

When I was younger I grew up believing that one day I would achieve perfection…I would have the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect relationship, and the perfect amount of money. Little did I know that perfect is near impossible to achieve. It’s a state of being that we all define differently. One of the many things I’ve gained, as I get older is wisdom, and in that wisdom, I’ve learned that it’s not possible to truly reach perfection. There’s a lot within my life that I’d like to improve upon. I guess I’d be a super arrogant person if I thought my life was perfect!! We’ve all met those people!!

There’s always something that we find about within our lives that isn’t quite right. Our jobs could be perfect if we just made more money or if we didn’t have to do certain tasks. Our house would be perfect if we had that extra cash to remodel the kitchen to be exactly the way we’d like. Our relationships are perfect most of the time but there’s that little thing that our significant others do that really drives us crazy!! So, we spend a majority of our lives either working to change those things that aren’t quite right or we have to decide that it’s better to move on to something completely different. There’s a fine balance between being happy and satisfied with what you have and trying to constantly improve what’s not working. As the saying goes the grass is always greener on the other side.

If you look up the word perfect in the dictionary it says, the following:

1.    Conforming absolutely to the description or definition of an ideal type; a perfect sphere; a perfect gentleman.
2.    Excellent or complete beyond practical or theoretical improvement.  There is no perfect legal code. 
3.    Exactly fitting the need in a certain situation or for a certain purpose; a perfect saw for cutting out keyholes.
4.    Entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings; a perfect apple.
5.    Accurate, exact or correct in every detail; a perfect copy.

Of course I had to laugh about the example of a perfect gentleman!! So, if it’s not possible to achieve perfection, as it’s defined above, what’s the next best thing? Or maybe it’s just as we get older we see more flaws in ourselves (and others!) which makes it seem harder to achieve perfection in various aspects of our lives.   

As I reflect on my experiences in Project Money and what perfection may look like in terms of my individual financial situation, what should it look like? Obviously we all define differently what financial perfection looks like to us, but based on what we’ve learned over the last seven months there are some strategies that may be more ideal for some circumstances over others. So, what works best for me, may not work the best for someone else. But we can use what we’ve learned through Project Money and work hard to move towards financial health. It’s not all about money but if we work towards financial success, other pieces of our lives might be easier – or at the very least we can save for the things that we’d like to do to improve our lives. 

There are very few things in life that can be truly considered perfect, unless of course you’re the Green Bay Packers!!