Perfection

Perfection in life is unobtainable as a whole. The masters of their craft are not even perfect. Every action you perform in life will not be perfect. It takes time to learn. There will be mistakes along the way. Chasing perfection is chasing a light at the end of the tunnel that never gets closer. But that does not stop us from continuing the quest. We are hoping to reach as close to perfection as possible regardless of how impossible the feat is.

While perfection throughout life is impossible, there are instances and events where perfection has been created. In Major League Baseball there have been 24 official perfect games thrown by pitchers since the year 1900. A perfect game is when a pitcher faces the minimum required 27 batters to record the 27 outs needed to finish a game with no batter reaching base. The last one happened June 28th, 2023 when New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán threw one against the Oakland Athletics. Prior to Domingo’s game, the last perfect game was 10 years ago in 2012. In football, there has been one perfect season, the 1972 Miami Dolphins who went 17-0 and won the Super Bowl. Instances of perfection in sport are possible but the level of frequency is rare.

Perfection can be treated on a much more granular level. In schooling, the best grade you can get on a test is a 100%. That is perfection. How frequently that happens depends on the student. Receiving a 10/10 rating on a film or tv show is perfection. That does happen. People want to be the best and perfection is the measuring stick for what the best can be.

Getting to perfection is not an instant process nor is it a guaranteed result. No one can be perfect throughout their life and no one can instantly be perfect. It takes years and years of practice to become the top of your field and even then, you may not be perfect. The point of pushing for perfection is striving to reach a point where you perform at the peak of your capabilities. Where your performance leaves no ounce of doubt on if you could have done better. Where you gave everything you had and created the result you desired. Perfection is a mindset, not a state of being. By holding high standards and continuing to improve, the light at the end of the tunnel that is perfection becomes that much closer. Chase perfection, even if it is impossible to find because the journey along the way will still make you one of the best.