(Image:Tyler Lastovich) “Does the perfect person exist in the world?” This is the question that I got from my younger sister, when she was only 8 years old. I couldn’t answer her question because I always thought that a person who has strong self-esteem is a perfect person. However, it is really hard to define who’s perfect, and who’s not based only on self-esteem. Self-esteem and Standard of a Perfect Life What is self-esteem ? According to the Oxford dictionary, the definition of ‘ self-esteem ’ is “ confidence in one’s own worth or abilities; self-respect ”. Also, "Esteem" is derived from the Latin aestimare, meaning "to appraise, value, rate, estimate". Then how can we improve our Self-esteem? 1. Be positive, and be generous to yourself 2. Everyone make mistakes, at least once in their lifetime, so don’t reproach yourself for making one mistake. 3. Challenge yourself, and deal with the problems, or things that require your flaws’ to improve 4. Spend more time with supportive people 5. Try to focus on the things that makes you feel better and confident Personal Reflection Personally, I lack self-confidence, or self-esteem. I still hesitate a lot when I have to face problems that I’ve never faced before. In addition, I had to get through the racial discrimination. For example, when I was in grade 8, I felt different from the majority of the classmates because I was the only international student. All of these things made me feel small and useless. These things made me think that a person who has strong self-esteem is the ‘perfect person’, and I admired my friends who were more confident about themselves than me. Then, my mom suggested I read one book, which was, ‘Self Respect Lesson’, by Yoon Hong Kyun. Yoon Hong Kyun is a Doctor of Humanities, who wrote a lot of books that are related to Humanities and self-respect. In the novel, he says that everyone has their own flaws, and we don’t have to be self-conscious from the others. He mentioned that we have to know how to love ourselves, including our flaws. Furthermore, he says that there’s no standard for ‘perfection’. After I read this book, I suddenly realized that I spent too much time thinking about the things that are inefficient, that make me feel bad, and result in making me feel like a small person. After that book, I started to focus on the positive things, and take the focus off the negative. (Image: Julian Jagtenberg)
About the perfection These days, people are getting many information from the internet or social media. However the fault of the information on the internet is that it is repleted with the unproved (manipulated) information. Also, the pictures of celebrities or influencers on the social media easily affect many people to get a fixed definition of what is an ideal life. Perfection does not exist, and it is just a standard that people made by their own perspectives. No one can be perfect at everything. So challenge yourself, and don't compare yourself with the ‘perfect’ standard that you have made. “A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.” - May Sarton There’s no standard for the perfect person, and no one can be perfect at everything. Therefore, be generous to your, and the others’ mistakes. Myongseo S Video related to Self-esteem Video related to Ending the pursuit of Perfection
2 Comments
Dan
12/6/2017 11:31:24 am
The idea of perfection is an interesting one, especially as it relates to self-esteem. What if we consider something like, "the best of all possible worlds" instead of "perfection"? It is equally impossible to define, but still seems like something we should work towards, even if we don't always know the best way to get there.
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C Simes
12/3/2021 03:49:12 am
There is a standard of perfection but it's something that human beings can not achieve In this lifetime. the standard is set by the greater of all things who himself is perfect And therefore has the authority to set the standard of what perfection is
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