Practice Makes Perfect...Sense

In life there is not a perfect anything, but other than something completely dependent upon statistics, perfection simply does not exist. Why then do we insist upon striving for something that isn’t real?

In our world today, the phrase “keeping up with Joneses” does not only seem superfluous, but is replaced by the term “exceeding the Joneses”. Everything that we aspire for, everything that wish to bequeath is all based on fantastical image of something that exists within the quadrants of our minds. Perfection in society rears its ugly head and wreaks havoc far too often in our lives. Perfect grades. Perfect shoes. Perfect hair. Perfect colour coded notes. Perfect skin. Perfect attendance. Perfect life.

This ideal world we design in our minds stops us from being REAL.

And if we can’t be REAL then can we truly be happy?

According Jonah Berger in his book “Contagious”, Berger describes that Brands cannot buy their customers. Sure it can get the word of mouth to spread like a virus, but then the fever starts to simmer down and people return to their original status quo. How then do some Brands manage to create such a loyalty and retain the following .

“It’s about tapping into the human truth. The human insight. The humanity of the brand. The good, the bad, the flaws”.

 That according Berger is where the sweet spot of value lies. How many times will we have to watch a mattress commercial on television that depicts a family gathered in a room on a bed watching the same T.V. show all laughing and smiling at each other with a voice over saying how this mattress is more than a bed, it’s a factor that brings our family together.

A misguided snapshot of reality

But this shouldn’t be viewed as “The end of civil society as we know it”. That’s not the purpose of this blog. The purpose is to reposition ourselves and see the value of being real. Don’t strive for the perfect house, the perfect children, the perfect body. No perfection, just practice. Imagine we could live in a world where you put down “good community member” on your CV and your future employee hired you for it. How awesome if our children practiced skills needed to be life-long learners? How spectacular if we practiced being the best parents we can be?

So what is the way we can show our “realness”. Kindness. Kindness is the act where even if you are not doing it for the intended purposes, the action for it makes a difference to the person receiving the notion. Don’t think that one little act of random kindness goes unnoticed, it doesn’t.

Let us not be perfect. Let us not be distracted by the unattainable. Let us show the next generation not only do they see the unattainable perfection, they now live in a world where they have to also show their perfect selves. Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, Facebook... What if we changed their conversation in their heads . No more perfect anything.

Just a life in practice.