This Should've Been Published Yesterday
“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.”
“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good.”
—John Steinbeck
Perfection Is a Prison
For context: I publish every Tuesday and Saturday, I’m writing this on a Wednesday.
It’s a fact that I commonly fail to admit: perfection is a prison.
I often push myself to follow not only unrealistic schedules and deadlines but ones that are frequently impossible to meet.
I erroneously strive (although, more subconsciously now as I’ve realized the error in my ways) to increasingly systemize my life: placing the rigidity of a self-imposed routine over happiness and all else.
Additionally, I might prioritize the sense of productivity: the appearance of it, over the product itself.
And, of course, I don’t actually complete this routine, or idea, or deadline that’s supremely unrealistic.
But this is not because I’m weak or don’t have the willpower of doing so, it is, rather, because when one—anyone—tries to accomplish something beyond them, they should start small, as to build their skills: in fact, they must start small in order to achieve nearly anything.
Simply: ‘walk before you can run.’
Yes, this is conventional wisdom,—sayings that are usually given eye-rolls and little substantive attention—so you may state it’s extraneous for me to speak on it, but, as I see it, conventional wisdom is the most disregarded wisdom.
All I Must Do Is Publish
Today, I recognize that, despite my inner pleadings to the contrary and the number of times I’ve seen the statement, perfection is a prison—oftentimes it takes lived experience like mine to truly digest widespread aphorisms like this, but I challenge you to do otherwise: to accept most common sense and sayings and acknowledge them as fact without having to undergo the consequences of rejecting it.
This, to me, is the most important wisdom: learning from others and trusting their proved and widely agreed-upon knowledge without letting your pride or what you desire the truth to exist as obstruct it.
All this is to say that I am purposefully publishing my Substack late today (opposed to the usual every Tuesday).
Instead of writing yesterday, I watched a movie: something that I haven’t done in quite a while, and whilst the movie was utterly terrible (yet actually pretty entertaining) I still benefited from watching it: I learned the heavily hashtagged phrase of self-care and understood that I don’t have to be perfect to do a good job: I don’t have to publish everyday, on time, all the time.
The only thing that I must do is publish because I write on my own terms, not the maliciously manifested ones of 9-to-5 cubicles and capitalism which prioritizes mass-production over quality.
I didn’t waste my energy attempting to achieve perfection in my Substack because I realized it’s, frankly, unattainable.
Conclusion
Perfect doesn’t exist: an uncriticizable bit of media doesn’t exist; a completely untainted youth doesn’t exist; a perfectly pristine piece of china doesn’t exist.
The point is that the dial is infinitely pushed with no end point, because perfect is simply a mythical idea.
In the real world, it doesn’t and has never existed.
I now understand that good is not just enough, it is the singular thing that has existed and it is often exactly what we need.
I decided to write this instead of pt. 2 of the Interstellar dissection—that will be coming Saturday. For those wondering, the movie is called “Sorry to Bother You.”
This was like way cool
Very wise observations