Previously posted February 27, 2016

Credit where it’s due, this title was borrowed from one of my mentors, Rabbi Daniel Lapin.

The particular lesson he delivered regarding ‘paralyzing perfection’ was over an hour long and had significantly more depth than what I’ll be going into here.  It’s Saturday night, after all.

The very base level gist of what Rabbi Lapin was speaking about during that lesson was that each of us must embrace our humanity.  Our imperfections.  Embrace all of that because we can never match the power of what brought us here.  Clearly the Rabbi had a particular power in mind, but this message rings true even for those who choose not to believe.

Deep down we crave this level of excellence, this level of perfection.  It impacts us in varying ways (procrastination, obsessiveness, being a workaholic, etc.), but the key is to recognize it and master these feelings ourselves.  How can this be done?  Accept our imperfections and embrace the possibility of constant improvement.

We can get better every day.  We just need to accept that there will always be something more to strive for, that we will never reach the pinnacle.  And that we are not expected to.  It’s humbling and empowering all at the same time.  Keep up the fight.