Expectations on Perfection

While it may not be the most original idea to post on some kind of social media outlet about the LDS General Conference, I’m going to continue the trend today. I feel that this week I learned a pretty profound lesson about life that deserves to be shared.

                My lesson came as President Uchtdorf spoke. He took the theme of his talk from the line in the Bible in which the Lord tells his apostles that one of them will betray Him. They ask the question: “Lord, is it I?” President Uchtdorf then crafted a very inspired message about looking inwards for blame, rather than pointing fingers around us.

                This bothered me a little. While the cleanliness level in my room attests to the fact that I am no perfectionist, I constantly struggle because I set extremely high expectations for myself. I tend to think that I am a much better athlete, scholar, missionary, roommate, and person than I actually am, and I get frustrated when my performance never turns out as well as I anticipated. After 21 years of periodically feeling like I’ve never achieved my potential, I occasionally wonder if my expectations are too high for myself—am I justified in thinking that I really can be that good?

                Then President Uchtdorf said something that I loved. He said that if we are blind to our mistakes, we are also blind to our divine potential. Conversely, if we keep our sights on the unlimited potential that has been promised to us, then we should be seeing our weaknesses. To me, this means that my thoughts are justified. If we understand the true extent of what is possible for us to achieve, then we ought to be discontent with mediocrity. When we see what we can become, then we should not be complacent with where we are; we ought to continue rising and climbing and becoming better and better on a daily basis.

                Now I’m not advocating for perfectionism—that can end up with a lot of broken hopes and can often do more harm than good—but I am advocating for all of us to continue on our individual journey to become better. The heights of complete self-mastery might not be summited today or tomorrow, but we are doing something wrong if we are not walking uphill.  Every day ought to be a new step for us in the right direction. Inevitably, we will slip and fall, but that’s okay as long as we continue to keep making another attempt. I’m determined to continue to climb upward and search for more within myself as I try to become the man I imagine that I can be, because I have an idea of what perfection is, and that perfection eventually is attainable.