Our imperfections are qualities and characteristics of what make us human. They provide the oddities that excite and enrich the flavour of our perspectives, they introduce novelty and personality.

Any yet imperfections are often shunted. A brilliant piece of furniture can be ruined with just one scratch.

And so there is a paradox in which imperfections can make the world all the more human-like whilst also frustrating our quest for quality.

For me, I love the kinks, dents and other ‘imperfections’ that add dimension to our lives. One the reasons I love working with old timber and restoring old furniture … each ‘imperfection is a story’ of that object.

I’d like to think that our task is not to shun the imperfections as how to work with them in a way that accentuates their qualities. And the same goes with people. There are so many people who might not ‘fit the mould’ … who are on the outside of that bell curve that defines the norm. Each of these has a gift if only we’d listen, support and encourage.

Perfection remains an aspiration

Amongst the many sayings by the painter Salvador Dali is:

‘Have no fear of perfection … you’ll never reach it.’

Whilst this might evoke feelings of frustration and dissolute thoughts of ‘what’s the point’ … it can also evoke feelings of exploration and discovery if we adopt a growth mindset as per the counsel of Carol Dweck. For our journey is then one of perfecting and improving … always learning and without fear of not being able to reach perfection.

Progressionism vs perfectionism

Perfection can sometimes be brought along as a guise to help support our excuses … I’ll not launch till it’s just right. I need to get this just so. All valid aspirations providing you also acknowledge any hint of procrastination … for to use perfection as an excuse leads to irrelevancy. Within a commercial sense the market might well be past you by the time you perfect. You need to balance progressionism with perfectionism.

We are living in a world where there are no guarantees only opportunities – where there are no definites only shades and where consequences are rooted in decisions but not all consequences arise from our decisions.

Mistakes unite life

All decisions are based on risk … from placing a bet at the roulette wheel to trusting a brand when we go shopping for food. If our decisions cause negative consequences we might call these mistakes of judgement. But then as per the words of …. in his recent book “Indistractable” it’s mistakes which enable us to learn.

Enter stage centre

I’d like to leave our discussion of similarities by bringing back on stage the insightfully smart man Leonardo Da Vinci, whose brilliance continues on. Centuries later and we are still discovering the meaning of some of his insights and philosophies.

I’d like to honour and respect the elderly and the wisdom they hold. The brilliant Australian speaker Glenn Capelli says that whenever we lose an First Nations elder we lose an encloypedia. And so whilst Leonardo might not longer be with us there are plenty of other old folk who are wise … just the same as there are plenty of young folk who are wise.

We all hold wisdom. And together we’d be that much better. And this said wisdom can be found in cracks, shadows and imperfections … all we need to do is take a peek and tune in.

(This is the first of a series of articles I’ll be writing for my next book ‘The Reno Diaries … refreshing our perspectives on life’.Once I finish writing these different articles I collate them into a book to give away if anyone is interested.)