Who knew high-school maths could teach life lessons too
A perspective shift on perfectionism.
Hello dear friend
What was the last book that tore your heart out of your chest and made you ugly cry? For me, it was When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.
I don’t want to give away much, but as the back blurb reads, it’s a “memoir by a young neurosurgeon faced with a terminal cancer diagnosis who attempts to answer the question 'What makes a life worth living?’”
The book is all sorts of beautiful, but before I talk more about it, let’s rewind a bit to high-school maths.
Do you know what an asymptote is?
An asymptote is a line that approaches a curve, but never meets it. The both lines runs parallel as they approach infinity. The distance between them keeps getting smaller and smaller, but they never touch. Here’s an image to give you an idea.
Now, you might be wondering why I’m suddenly behaving like your maths teacher. The reason is this beautiful quote I came across in Paul Kalanithi’s beautiful book.
“You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.”
I’ve been guilty of not publishing a story because it wasn’t perfect in my eyes. This toxic trait has deprived me of so many opportunities throughout my life.
These days, when my inner voice starts to say, “It’s not good enough,” I always tell myself, “You don’t have to impress yourself.”
Unknowingly, I’ve set my standards so high, that perfection for me is an elusive nothing. I fail to impress myself many times, and thus, my stories fail to reach the world.
But then, what about the thousands of people who might read my story and change their lives for the better? What about my audience who have expectations from me, and would be disappointed if I don’t give them what they want?
So, I no longer aim to impress myself. I no longer strive for perfection.
Instead, I give my best in every venture I attempt, and not let my expectations of perfection ruin my chances of putting my work out there in the world.
Hope you liked this week’s message. Note that I create this newsletter for you weekly with lots of love. If you’d like to support me, here’s a link to buy me a book.
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That’s all from my end today. I’ll see you again soon. Till then, stay strong. Keep smiling and be awesome.
With love,
Anangsha.