When Perfectionism Goes Bad

The pressure to be perfect is flat-out deadly. Absolutely sucks the life right out of a person. I can’t say I’m beyond its reach yet, but I’ve turned my back on it, at least. Unfortunately, any time we rebel against something, we have a tendency to become extreme in an opposite direction, and I think that is what has happened to me.

Scripture is filled with examples of people who didn’t hit the nail on the head every time. Sometimes we mess things up in ignorance and immaturity; sometimes we mess it up by choice. Doesn’t matter: God gives us mercy.

I got a glimpse of myself this evening, though, and I didn’t like what I saw. I realized that in resisting the urge of perfectionism, I have not even been doing my best.

The Bible says that whatever our hand finds to do, we should do it with all our might, and I believe there is a very good reason for that. We put ourselves under stress when we don’t give ourselves completely to what we are doing. It doesn’t matter if it’s a simple thing or a complex thing. When we present a heart-deep unified front to whatever task is before us, we are cutting our stress level drastically.

Somewhere or other, I think I’ve become a little dishonest with myself. I’ve convinced myself that I have too much to do, and I’m too busy, and having convinced myself of that, I have become weary and inefficient. What is scary is that I’m the only one who knows. Fact is, no one can do everything, and not every reason is an excuse. I can say I didn’t get such and such done today, because so and so took longer than I’d expected. Hey, it happens. That’s not necessarily an excuse. But maybe I let myself be distracted by unimportant things. Maybe I got tired and slow because I hadn’t gone to bed early enough the night before, or had something sugary for breakfast. Maybe I didn’t care enough. Maybe I wasn’t trying. Maybe I just wasn’t giving it my best.

I’m the only one who knows if one of those things is true. It isn’t generally for you to judge if I’m giving my best. We have varying levels of capability, and we can’t all tolerate the same amount of repetitive activities or, conversely, the same degree of variety. Unless you are with someone day in and day out and see everything they face in the course of a day or a week, you really have little idea of the truth about their life, anyway. But I know my life, and if I am making excuses to myself, I am in big trouble.

Somewhere in this I must find the truth about myself, and embrace it. No, I can’t do everything, and I can’t keep everyone happy. But I can get with God and determine my course, and I can give my best to my work.

Every time.

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