There is not such a thing like the perfect world, the perfect family, wife and so on, actually nothing is perfect, not even the food we eat. Our days a live under the sun are full of imperfection, even tough we do expect perfection, from everything and everyone around, from our parents, partners, coworkers even from ourselves. But because nothing is perfect we find ourselves full of disappointments day after day.
But why is that? why is our expectation of perfection too high? Robert Green in his book the law of human nature says that, we, mankind fail often to interpret reality with accuracy, most of us have get this wrong recognition bias from our parents and they got them from theirs and so on, so we grow up looking for the perfect everything mostly because we unconsciously believe that happiness is found in perfection and as our desire for happiness grow, the pain of disappointment also grow. And because our natural response to disappointments are emotions mostly in the negative side, at this point, our happiness become unreachable.
So how to cure this terrible disease ?
Already before our times many of the greatest thinkers in history have dedicate their life to the analysis of such conditions in the flow of life.
I personally have found myself slave of negatives emotions that bother the tranquility of my spirit in a great scale. In those moments of confusion I’ve find comfort in other mans writings such as Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca, they have show me the sweet way of stoic philosophy, a way to see the things as they are, imperfect and unfair because all humans affairs are prone to error. Being this our truly nature we can only aspire to control what is within ourselves and how we response to external events that are out of our control.
I have personally committed myself to the pursuit of excellence always looking to accomplish goals in highest standards, but coming from real humble environments the information saved in my brain and subconscious differs from real excellence and in many instance they are badly wrong.
Growing up I always thought of my father as the biggest role model, as the best example of how a real man should be, while lots of things are good and helpful, there are others that are totally wrong for the world and time we live in, and is been painful to replace those ideas, mostly because the family connection is strong and I have those ideas so impregnate in my way to be that it takes painful experiences to realize, that my way to behave is not taking me to the place I want to be.
It is different for everyone. Some of us hold believes that has been in the family for generations, for example religion. While I am not judging the faith of honest souls seeking redemption, me myself belong to a very religious family. What I mean is that in my journey I’ve discover that I been taught ideologies that limit my view and sometimes those ideologies stop me from reaching my goals. The truth is that religion it’s truth for the common people, false for the wise and useful for those in power, again I am not saying religion is a bad thing, there are many useful and good teaching in any religion around the world, we just need to be wise enough to take what is good for us and let behind what is not, the same goes for what we learn while growing up, what we learn when reading a book, or any other source of information.
THE MAGIC IN ACCEPTING THINGS AS THEY ARE
The first thing is to keep and untroubled spirit, the second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are. – MARCUS AURELIUS –
Looking deep into oneself could be a painful process because in many instance we find not so pleasant truths, mostly in our character. In my case when looking into me with an open mind I found myself a liar, selfish, and not humble at all, the worst thing is to be a liar but not to others but to myself, I found that to be the biggest sin and the biggest obstacle between my goals and I.
Now accepting our truly nature of imperfection we can begin our journey to excellence, being careful of what information we take as truth, choosing the right book, the right Netflix show, the right partner and so on, and always keeping in mind that everyone around is fighting their own battle, sadly often in the shadows of ignorance.
So lets us be free of any misunderstanding, let us be free of judgement to others and most important lets never make assumptions without considering the real facts, with this in mind we can save us a lot of unnecessary troubles and disappointments, lets everyday be a chance to be a better person and lets our decision be guided by reason and virtue.
I am deeply honored to have you reading my thoughts, I really hope you find clarity of mind. And since what I know is nothing compared to what I don’t know, I am so pleased to hear others opinions on this matter and so together we can find out what is truth.
Now I want to share with you a beautiful quote to color your days and life.
Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the human spirit is colored by such impressions. – Marcus Aurelius –
Thank you
Jordan Gonzalez
Placer filosofico 