I'm imperfect in so many ways.
Heck, most days I wonder whether my wife loves me as a result of those imperfections or whether I just managed to hide them well enough (when we were dating). And now that we're married, she's stuck with me...
Imperfections are weird in the sense that we're generally quite aware of them, but we never really do anything about them. Maybe that's because we can't necessarily change these imperfections. Or because we believe - like Facebook - that done is better than perfect.
Maybe perfection doesn't exist though. Regardless of the relevant facts that relates to the situation (within which you are measuring perfection).
The other night, my wife & I really struggled to put Adii Jr to bed. Adii Jr is a little over 2 years old already and he's mostly really good at going to bed at night. Except for that one night a week...
If there's anything that I've learnt as a parent in these 2 years, it's that consistency, routine and the discipline around those things are incredibly important (for my own sanity). As such, we have a go-to-bed ritual in the evenings which sees Adii Jr going to bed at around 7:30pm or 8:00pm.
On this particular night though, nothing worked / helped and by 9pm we had given up. That means that we put him into our bed, whilst we caught up on a couple of episodes of Homeland.
Homeland being a captivating show and all, meant that Adii Jr was loving the opportunity not to sleep and instead watched some TV with his mom and dad.
This continued until well after 11pm, when we tried to put him into his own bed and finally succeeded in putting him to sleep.
The thing about this experience was that it probably breaks all the rules in terms of parenting best practice.
But at the same time, those 2-odd hours were so fantastic and I appreciate the time we spent together (cuddling) as a family so much. As a parent, it's these moments and memories that you eventually reminisce about.
Within that compromise and imperfection, there's also a beauty and opportunity that would've otherwise been inaccessible (if one didn't embrace the imperfection).
Last week I told the subscribers of my newsletter that my primary goal for 2014 was to commit to taking a sabbatical this year.
In the last couple of days, I've already been thinking about (and possibly even, planning) how I'm gonna break that commitment to pursue that goal.
My biggest struggle has been in aligning my head and heart. I know that I need a break and I need to detox, but in my heart, I love being an entrepreneur, crafting new things and creating value.
This leaves me in a complicated and imperfect situation, as my head and heart are pulling me in two, very contradicting directions. Both decisions has merit and offers great reward.
But committing either way means a compromise of the other.
Applying the done is better than perfect mantra also doesn't help me much here, as both options requires doing something.
As I have been fretting about this in this in the last couple of days, I've realized that the best shit is sometimes just inherently imperfect. Even the best of diamonds normally have an incredibly tiny imperfection.
I think this is what keeps us grounded and retains the realness of life. It's authentic.
I don't yet know what to do about this. Or which way to go. But like the other night (when I was being an imperfect parent), there's an element of just being that comes to mind here.
What if I didn't actually pursue a decision? What if I just continued fretting about this and I embraced whatever happened next?
Maybe a great job offer comes along? Or I stumble onto an idea that I just can't avoid obsessing about? Or what if someone offers to sell me their company tomorrow?
All of those decisions would require compromise (of whatever) making them imperfect given all of the facts that surround my current situation.
So I'm saying "Fuck it!" to trying to figure out the best way to go about this.
And instead I'm just embracing imperfection, because the best things in life are imperfect by natural design.
Did You Enjoy This Post?
If you did, here's some related links from my "Best Of"-collection that you might enjoy as well:
- The Second Time Is Harder, After successfully exiting my first startup, I found my second startup so much harder.
- What Running Has Taught Me About Entrepreneurship, Running has taught me so much about running a startup.
- Pause, That time when I was mentally and emotionally in debt, and had no way to pay those bills.
- Scared To Start?, All entrepreneurs have a healthy fear of failure.