Stop Chasing Perfection & Start Finding Joy
Humans crave a destination. Whether it's God, gods, retirement, or a cabin on a creek, we desire that perfected end state we can narrowly work toward. The turmoil of vast expanses of nature and creative acts tends to bring a sense of instability.
A whirling Dervish has learned to embrace this instability, channeling energy into new insights. An over-caffeinated accountant has learned to focus all energy on a single line at a time. The modern world we all live in rewards most of us to be more like the latter.
While this isn't inherently a bad thing, it does tend to push us into increasingly narrow views of the world. We obsess and overdevelop an ever-narrower idea of our personal vision of perfection. All other options become less connected and possible. Color fades away, and defects become more visible. We get obsessed with eliminating these remaining defects.
The good news seems to be that the joyful path isn't miles away, but rather a slight shift to the left or right. This change in view can bring a rush of learning. Insights that create meaningful change for our lives and the lives of others.
Human joy comes from presence, connection, and creation. Our goal must be not to narrow down on perfection but to expand out to form new insights, real connections, and create meaningful things with and for other humans.
This is my struggle.