Marie sees a job in the classifieds that she really wants; it suits her to a T.

But she cant bring herself to call for additional information, as the ad requires, fearing that shell make a mistake or sound foolish or fail to impress.

So, she rehearses the call, over and over, in her mind, trying to anticipate every contingency.

Finally, by the end of the day she phones in, only to be told they have enough applicants already, but thank you very much.

Maries perfectionism prevented her from being considered, and this type of loss occurs all the time to people who believe they should becorrectionwho feel they MUST BE PERFECT in order to undertake a task.

Wed all be better off accepting our shortcomings and getting on with whatever we want to do or need to do, however imperfect we may be at it.

Im reminded of the story of Native American craftspeople, especially those who string together beautiful beads. Purposely, some of these artisans put tiny flaws into their creations as a reminder that nothing is perfect.

I understand that people who sew beautiful quilts do something very similar, for the same reason.

Once, when I was accepting delivery of a new car, I pointed out a small scratch and the salesman said to me hes like to take a small hammer to the undercarriage and put a ding in it so customers could relax and get over the trauma of suffering their first dent.

I dont recall if that made me feel any better about the scratch but I got his point.

It is wasteful to expect or to seek perfection. If we do, well stall.

If we can accept flaws, especially our own, making our expectations more reasonable, well do more, probably at a higher standard of quality, than we ever expected!