Make Prideful Mistakes. Perfection is Boring.

In my last blog, I talked about “living in the growth zone” and mentioned my three major fears in life. 

1. Getting my driver's license
2. Going to college
   
   
3. Kissing my future husband in front of everyone at my wedding

I accomplished the first one a few years ago and can now officially say I accomplished the second one. I was so fearful of the change, but I am loving this new experience. 

I am enrolled in an art class this semester and as much as I love being creative, I am terribly awful at painting, which is the focus of the class. However, I love going to class just to hear the wise words from my instructor. 

A few weeks ago I walked in, sat down, and started working on my project. I started getting frustrated about how it was not what I wanted it to be. The colors would not match, paint was everywhere, it was taking 6-8 layers just to cover up my pencil marks, and I could not stay in the lines to save my life. It was at that moment my instructor stopped the class and asked for our attention. He said, “Class, I want you to know one thing and you might hate me for saying this: Perfection is boring.” At that moment I started questioning everything. My strength yet weakness is that I am a perfectionist. He went on to tell the class a story about this little girl.

He said “At church one day this little girl was going to sing. I had a friend go up to her and tell her that if she sang super loud he would give her a dollar. So she ended up screaming all the songs that day in church.” At this point, I was wondering how this story had anything to do with perfection being boring but my instructor went on. He said, “Do you see where I am going with this? People remembered the performance that day not because it was perfect but because it had its imperfections.” 

He then asked me what I did not like about my painting. I replied, “the colors do not match as well as I want them to, I keep going outside of the lines, and the pencil marks are still noticeable!” He then went on to grab my painting and held it far away from me. He asked me, “What does it look like now,” and I was in awe. It looked perfect to me. 

So perfection is boring. Make mistakes and embrace them with the hope that
something beautiful will come out of it. You will have mishaps in life, but that's when
the most beautiful things are created that you become remembered for.
Take a step back and breathe when times get hard and open your eyes again to realize
the bigger picture. It will work out and perfection is in fact boring.

Stationed by the Flag,

Britton Fuglseth