Almost everything we do is in some way incondite, but every once in a long while, we do something, and then turn around, look at what we’ve done, and say, “Hey, ‘that’ wasn’t so bad. In fact, I might deserve a pat on the back. The more I think about it, I think ‘that’ might have been nearly perfect.”
In fact, you do have many successes and many accomplishments that are nearly perfect. You just have a tendency to say, “Ah! I could have done this or that better.”
So what? Overall, you did something well. Perfection is more of a goal than an achievement for members of our species. As long as one strives for the goal, one can look back to say, “Okay, I know I’m not perfect. I know I could have done some things differently, but, hey, I truly did what I thought was correct, and I truly applied my energy. Maybe I missed perfection, but only the most critical out there will both note and comment on my imperfection. Why do I need to dwell on what is minor when I accomplished what is major?”
This is not, however, a justification of failure. Nor is it a justification of merely trying. I don’t want to sound like Yoda, but the screenwriter had a good point in writing the oft-repeated line from Star Wars (“Do or do not; there is no try). We can’t equate trying with doing. We do measure ourselves by our accomplishments. We just need to know that sometimes, no matter how much or how well we do, we will find in critical retrospect our work to be incondite.
Critical retrospect is the way of the world because we can’t be aware of all perspectives when we are in the midst of doing. Every future manifests perspectives not available in the present. So, few human accomplishments stand the test of hypercritical hindsight. Note, however, that very few hyper-critics apply their standards to their own history.
There will always be someone out there to criticize our work, and maybe some of that criticism is deserved. But every once in a long while, regardless of failures and outside criticism, we can look back on what we did and say, “Hey, that wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was pretty good.”
In fact, you do have many successes and many accomplishments that are nearly perfect. You just have a tendency to say, “Ah! I could have done this or that better.”
So what? Overall, you did something well. Perfection is more of a goal than an achievement for members of our species. As long as one strives for the goal, one can look back to say, “Okay, I know I’m not perfect. I know I could have done some things differently, but, hey, I truly did what I thought was correct, and I truly applied my energy. Maybe I missed perfection, but only the most critical out there will both note and comment on my imperfection. Why do I need to dwell on what is minor when I accomplished what is major?”
This is not, however, a justification of failure. Nor is it a justification of merely trying. I don’t want to sound like Yoda, but the screenwriter had a good point in writing the oft-repeated line from Star Wars (“Do or do not; there is no try). We can’t equate trying with doing. We do measure ourselves by our accomplishments. We just need to know that sometimes, no matter how much or how well we do, we will find in critical retrospect our work to be incondite.
Critical retrospect is the way of the world because we can’t be aware of all perspectives when we are in the midst of doing. Every future manifests perspectives not available in the present. So, few human accomplishments stand the test of hypercritical hindsight. Note, however, that very few hyper-critics apply their standards to their own history.
There will always be someone out there to criticize our work, and maybe some of that criticism is deserved. But every once in a long while, regardless of failures and outside criticism, we can look back on what we did and say, “Hey, that wasn’t so bad. In fact, it was pretty good.”
RSS Feed