My teenage daughter sometimes accuses me of being a perfectionist, especially when I’m trying to have her clean the kitchen floor including the area underneath the table, or fold laundry a certain way to avoid wrinkles in the clothing. She is likely to say, “Mom, it doesn’t have to be perfect.”
I wince. I don’t want her to be perfect; there’s no such thing…or is there? So I looked up the definition of perfection. One of its meanings is “being in a condition of excellence, as in a skill or quality.” I looked up the definition of excellence — “to be better or greater than.”