67. ON THE FUTILITY OF ACHIEVING PERFECTION
Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.
- Salvador Dali
My oldest daughter started piano lessons when she was 6. Not long after, she begged to quit. She’d had an idea she would play like her professional musician aunt, who sounded near perfect to her ears. Instead, she struggled through simple pieces that soon made each practice session a battle of wills. Even at such a young age, she’d heard that practice makes perfect and, in her mind, practice had failed so she might as well give up.
I could empathize with my daughter, because I know what it’s like to fail. I fail as a parent, as a military officer, as a writer. I did not bring everyone home from Afghanistan. I have been rejected by scores of agents and publishers. I will never have infinite patience with my daughters, I will never fully avoid selfishness in my actions and decisions, and I will never write a book without some hope of recognition.
The reason is simple. Perfection is an unattainable goal.
Maybe that runs counter to what most of us have heard, that practice makes perfect. It is the truth, however. Perfection is a destination we’ll never reach, no matter how hard or how much we practice.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to get there.
For if perfection is unattainable, progress is not. We can always ask how close we can get to perfection, how we can improve and, no matter what answer we give, the ‘how’ of that answer will be the same for all of us. And, even more, the ‘how’ is the only part of the answer that’s important. We improve through practice, because while practice doesn’t make perfect, it does make better.
In this journey to serve others, there will be lots of opportunity for failure. We’d be kidding ourselves if we pretended otherwise. Just as my daughter will never be a perfect pianist no matter how much she practices, we’ll never help our communities become perfectly resilient through our service. In both cases, it doesn’t matter. We can always make things better.
What I’m saying is that it’s the journey that’s important, not the destination. The fact that we’ll fail to achieve perfection isn’t a limitation, it’s a freedom, because it empowers us to always improve. Besides, using personal service to help our communities face climate change is not some fixed journey with a defined endpoint. People change, our communities change, and so our goals will change as well. What will not change, is the process by which we make things better.
Service.
Our service always has the potential to make our communities more resilient, and, if we practice and trust the process along the way, it is also the key to realizing our full potential.
To do that, however, we have to let go.
