Why imperfect is more beautiful than perfect

Why imperfect is more beautiful than perfectWhy imperfect is more beautiful than perfectIm a recovering perfectionist.Its a battle Ive waged for years. Id often catch myself spending a few futile hours moving paragraphs around on the same page for the sixteenth time. Id become obsessed with every crevice and corner, every comma and semicolon, just to get the article or the book chapter perfect - as Sisyphus rolled his eyes at me.Of course, I knew about the usual vices of perfectionism - that its a futile quest to hit a moving target, that it can be crippling, and that it gets in the way of actually doing the work.But I still couldnt turn it off because I thought that perfect meant beautiful. I told myself that, if I aimed for anything less than perfect, my writing would suck.Now, I think the opposite. Perfect and beautiful arent the same thing. Perfect often degrades the work product. Its the flaws, the imperfections, the roughness around the edges that generate the beauty.Let me e xplain.Perfectionism is primarily fueled by a desire for external approval. Its an indulgence. Were afraid that if we expose our flaws, well stop getting our daily dose of approvals. So we puff ourselves up and create curated positive portrayals of our imperfect and flawed lives. We round off the edges, airbrush the negatives, and present a perfect image to the public that we carefully nurture and maintain.Heres an example. YouTube is filled with videos filmed by personal trainers who move seamlessly from one intense exercise to the next without so much as taking a breath. I huff, puff, and disappear into a puddle of sweat while trying to follow what Im convinced is a robot performing impossible reps and sets.Yes, thats the word Robot. Perfection is for robots. philanthropisch beings come with flaws.When we cover up these flaws, we also conceal what makes us human. About a year ago, I gave my weekly newsletter a facelift by adding a fancy headshot, photos, and graphics. My open rate s - which track how many of my subscribers open my emails - plummeted. The open rates recovered only after I went back to a simple text format that looks more like a rough email from a friend.It turns out that people want the pig without the lipstick.Its like Rocky and Apollo boxing after hours in the gym when everyone leaves. Thats the real, raw stuff. Everything else is a show.Many Navajo rugs havemistakes in them - distortions in the patterns, lines, and shapes. Some say that these mistakes are intentionally crafted as a reminder of human imperfection. But others suggest that the mistakes arent intentional. Whats intentional is the desire not to go back and fix them. ansicht mistakes, woven into the fabric, are left to stand.These rugmakers know whats obvious An imperfect, hand-crafted rug with a story is far more beautiful than one manufactured to perfection in a factory.The Japanese call this concept wabi-sabi. Its one of those beautiful foreign words that has no equivalent in English. As Richard Powell explains, wabi-sabi acknowledges three realities nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.Im not talking about the type of fake imperfection that makes blue jeans look weathered or a Crate Barrel chair look antique. Manufactured imperfections are easy to spot. You know them when you see them. Its the authentic imperfection - like thisvideo of a personal trainerwho openly exposes her exhaustion during exercise - that makes you want to tell the world about her.Ona podcast, the writer and musician Derek Sivers tells a terrific story on point. He once received a sampler CD of unknown artists. As he listened to the CD in the background, one song stopped him in his tracks.It welches a woman singingLeaving Las Vegas. As she reached a pitch, her voice audibly cracked. Like the Navajo rugmakers, she left in that little fault in the finished CD. There were 15 other artists in that CD that Ill never remember, says Sivers. But I remember that. Remember he did, as that unknown artist later made waves across the globe as Sheryl Crow.In a world obsessed with perfection, the imperfect stands out. The visible exhaustion in a trainer, the typo in a writers article, the crack in a singers voice all expose a creators humanity for all to see.In that moment, they become relatable.Yes, theyre not perfect. But theyre beautiful.Ozan Varol is a rocket scientist turned law professor and bestselling author.Click hereto download a free copy of his e-book, The Contrarian Handbook 8 Principles for Innovating Your Thinking. Along with your free e-book, youll get the Weekly Contrarian - a newsletter that challenges conventional wisdom and changes the way we look at the world (plus access to exclusive content for subscribers only).Thisarticlefirst appeared onOzanVarol.com.