Am I a perfectionist?
Sometimes I have been a bit intense about wanting everything to go well, more than anything else, at my own pace and in my own way, getting exasperated when things don't go as I expect and in the time I think they should.
A principle that my mother taught us, is that "if you are going to do something, do it well, if not, don't do it" and it seems reasonable to me, because if, for example, she told me to clean the table and I did it wrong, she assumed that it was one task less, and then she realized that it was done wrong, so she had to do it herself or tell me to do it again, in both cases, I was adding more to her to take care of, besides, she lost confidence in my ability to perform the tasks she entrusted me with. And I'm talking about something very simple, the consequences could be much worse, depending on the situation. I think that might have influenced me to like things well done.
But I don't think I'm a perfectionist, because in that case, I would never be satisfied with the results of what I do, or what others do, and honestly I'm not. My margin of "acceptable" is wide.
At the end of the day, we are human, but not perfect, that would take away from our existence, the grace of trial and error, of continuous learning, of enjoying what we do, of the taste of victory after so much effort.
When my son does his homework, even if I am not satisfied, I tell him what he could have done better so that he can learn and if he does not want to do it again, at least correct the spelling mistakes, that seems unacceptable to me. He, without complicating himself too much, chooses to put the correct spelling and that's it.
Could perfectionism cause depression?
I am convinced that yes, because the continuous frustration of not seeing the expected results can also generate anxiety and impotence, for not being able to make things different.
We live in a country in which, if we expect perfection in our daily life, we would go crazy, because in general, it is a totally unstructured system, there is no order in anything and the schemes of what should be are not fulfilled. Even planning is not worth much, rather "as it comes, let's see what happens".
Thank God Venezuelans, for the most part, are resilient, we adapt to reality, with the best possible attitude and try to do the best we can with what we have, because "it is what we have".
My sister, who went to live in Chile, tells me that there, one of the biggest causes of absenteeism is depression, she tells me that people tend to depress me easily, for things that for us are nothing.
But Venezuelans carry in our blood an intense survival instinct, along with a fighting spirit and a dose of good humor, the perfect combination to get ahead in each of the challenges we have faced, which by the way, have not been few.
But it is precisely those challenges that have made us strong, capable of keeping our sanity in scenarios where others would lose it.
We are standing, not because we do not fall, but because we get up more times than we fall.
Cover designed in Canva.
Photographs of my property.
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Separator made in PowerPoint, using the official Blurt logo.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)