Perfection and Influence

 Hi!!

Today itself, I was reading a book which said something about sharpening your skills. It clicked it my mind, but not in the way you'd expect it to. You see, we have to think as our talents and skills as pencils not in order to use the term "sharpening my skills", but to keep them intact! A common saying in Marathi boosted this thought process of mine; अति तेथे माती. I would write it in English, but Marathi has a charm like no other.

It means that if we do something in excess, the results are worthless. I related that with a pencil (no, I'm not obsessed with pencils or anything). If we sharpen a pencil more than we're supposed to, its tip breaks. Which basically means अति तेथे माती. Makes sense? But the opposite of this saying is quite the same. If we don't sharpen the pencil at all, it becomes blunt and practically useless.

A random picture of pencils that I liked.

So, I thought that isn't it the same about our talents? For example, I am learning to play the harmonium. Practicing is very, very important. And what if I practice longer than I ever have? At one point, my fingers will start to hurt. I may even get bored, and therefore, hardly productive. But, if I don't practice at all, I will lose my touch and forget where to place my fingers. And I will still end up hardly productive. Just like a pencil. 

Suppose I like to run (I'm not sure if I do, but this is an example), and I run at a specific pace daily. Suddenly I start overdoing myself and running a lot. Then, my legs will hurt, I will feel tired, and I may lose interest. But then, if I don't run at all, my cardiovascular strength will go down. Just like a pencil.

I'm not saying that there should be perfection in everything that we do, nor that there is a specific standard for doing things. I think that we should do things in a way most convenient and if we want to increase the proportion, we shall, but step-by-step. 

Many people expect us to have ultimate perfection in things; just because we have succeeded once. But that's not right. To me, I achieve perfection when I'm alone, when no one expects me to be perfect. Expectations play a huge role in our achievements. More than half the students in the world want to score good marks in exams, not because they want to be successful in life, but because someone has high expectations from them. They are also highly affected by peer pressure and the thought "What will she/he say?" comes into their mind 20 times a day.

Peer pressure affects everyone, even the most sensible of people. That's because our thoughts are influenced by the society's thoughts. Peer pressure is at its highest for teens. And I agree. If I say something odd, or embarrassing at school, I will be regretting it the whole day, or even the whole week. But what I would not think of, is that most of the people who heard that thing must've even forgotten by now. Only the ones close to me may remember. But why should I dwell on something that no one even thinks about?

I love owls, and I love listening to Indian Classical Music. But just because some "popular" girl says that Indian Classical Music is boring and owls are scary and disgusting, does that I mean I should stop liking them? Last year, K-Pop hit our school like fire. Everyone was obsessed with it. I didn't care at the beginning but then my curiosity increased, and I decided to check out some of the popular songs. It wasn't bad at all. But something just didn't feel right. Though I did not mention this in school. I searched up everything about K-Pop just to ensure I won't be singled out or anything, and it still felt wrong in my mind. Finally, I told my friend that I was glad that there was something she liked, but unfortunately, I did not like it. The surprising answer I received was that she had also stopped liking K-Pop, she just didn't know how to say it. We should always express ourselves (not harshly, of course) and that will reduce about 90% of the misunderstandings that happen in our lives.

This year, practically everyone in our school has forgotten about how much they used to like K-Pop. At times I wonder, was it all just a pretense? An act for attention? But when I say, 'practically everyone', I am talking about a specific person. One of my best friends still likes it. My mistake, she loves it. No one exactly motivates her, but she enjoys listening to these songs because she wants to. I never told her so, but she is a huge inspiration for me. We really mustn't care about what others think! Not when it comes to us.

Another example. One of my friends asked me to be different, just because she wanted to be. I didn't get it at first, but she said she wanted to behave like a popular person. I asked her what she meant by that. According to her and most of the society, popularity is something you earn by looks and certain habits. And those habits aren't the best ones. I used to want to join that group myself. Now that I know that looks and popularity are the only things fueling them, I regret that wish and am glad it did not come true. I told her to not to try to be someone completely different. Our own values and talents should be so good, that someone would want to be us.

We must learn to properly express ourselves, never harshly, but politely and in a manner that people will be inspired to do the same. Perfection is not a talent, but something that is said to be good, nothing in the world is perfect or flawless.

I hope you found this post interesting! I personally thought of it as a pensieve. hehehe
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