Thank you for sharing these peeks into your life. They are unique, but when I read them it felt like they rhymed with some of mine. I recently met someone who was a prime candidate to be a Girl in the Korean Newspaper and it hit me in the gut, ha! I'm 31 now and reconsider my metrics of happiness weekly. This is beautifully written and touched me very deeply.
"Is perfect a noble truth we pursue, or an illusion of control that blinds us"?
Perhaps. As a 1st gen immigrant and perfectionist myself I resonate the curse of perfection. In my case, my parent (mom), a successful executive herself, never exerted any expectation; she was too busy for me. The pressure was mainly from myself. There's constant anxiety of not being enough can be tormenting. It gets worse as I 'climbed' higher up the career ladder.
BUT, isn't that also a blessing - after all our career success is because of this relentless drive to be perfect, even though deep down, we know it is unattainable, a moving target?
I have also come to term with who I am - I want to be better than myself, my peers in the filed I chose, and I will try best I could. Even if I will never be the best, it is worthy of trying and I enjoy the journey. As that give me purpose.
So, it comes down to how to manage and leverage the strive for perfection to your advantage?
What a beautiful contemplation of life as a child of immigrants. These vignettes touched on so many of the themes and experiences I had. Thank you for sharing vulnerably and openly about these hard lessons.
"Life will always have stains." I have this same battle every day. My kids want to show me something and I'm in the middle of something. I'm mindful of their requests as best as I can be but it's hard. This is a good reminder. I'm also aware that my kids are growing up quickly and these moments are fleeting.
Thank you for sharing these peeks into your life. They are unique, but when I read them it felt like they rhymed with some of mine. I recently met someone who was a prime candidate to be a Girl in the Korean Newspaper and it hit me in the gut, ha! I'm 31 now and reconsider my metrics of happiness weekly. This is beautifully written and touched me very deeply.
Thanks for sharing your personal journey especially the internal one. Beautifully written, couldn't stop reading.
"Is perfect a noble truth we pursue, or an illusion of control that blinds us"?
Perhaps. As a 1st gen immigrant and perfectionist myself I resonate the curse of perfection. In my case, my parent (mom), a successful executive herself, never exerted any expectation; she was too busy for me. The pressure was mainly from myself. There's constant anxiety of not being enough can be tormenting. It gets worse as I 'climbed' higher up the career ladder.
BUT, isn't that also a blessing - after all our career success is because of this relentless drive to be perfect, even though deep down, we know it is unattainable, a moving target?
I have also come to term with who I am - I want to be better than myself, my peers in the filed I chose, and I will try best I could. Even if I will never be the best, it is worthy of trying and I enjoy the journey. As that give me purpose.
So, it comes down to how to manage and leverage the strive for perfection to your advantage?
That's a beautiful final remark! I love it! 'Life will always have stains. Maybe it's just about trading one kind of perfect for another.'
What a beautiful contemplation of life as a child of immigrants. These vignettes touched on so many of the themes and experiences I had. Thank you for sharing vulnerably and openly about these hard lessons.
"All I can think of at this time is how to build a better version of myself by ironing out what’s defective."
This was beautiful, and hit to the heart.
so beautiful words 🥰
"Life will always have stains." I have this same battle every day. My kids want to show me something and I'm in the middle of something. I'm mindful of their requests as best as I can be but it's hard. This is a good reminder. I'm also aware that my kids are growing up quickly and these moments are fleeting.