Everybody wants to be perfect. Everyone wants to win the contest or at least know the person who won the contest so that they can learn how to win a later contest. Everyone wants to win the big game, buy the perfect gift, cook the best meal, write the ultimate witty retort. Because of this yearning, this nagging desire for perfection, we miss out on the good times in life, but we do not want to have a good time, not really. In America good is secondary; good is middle class or average and a C is never good enough in America. You need that A; you must excel at every little thing otherwise you will be left out of the party or the college or the competition. You will be eliminated like a reality television star who just could not quite get the judges to like them enough. So close, yet so far. You have been eliminated and now you are no longer a member of the elite club of perfectionists. You are doomed to a life of good enough. But why isn't good enough enough? Why do we desire more than good? Why is it bad to do a good job? You may make a little less money, but you gain a whole lot more sanity than people realize. No one will ever be perfect so striving to reach that goal is a fool's game. Eventually you will be as optimized, maximized, and actualized as you could ever possibly be. Then there will be nowhere else to go, nothing else to improve upon. And then what? Do you push yourself even more? If you do, at that point, you just might fall over the edge. If you push yourself too hard you will be burned out, apathetic and unable to find joy in the passion you once had. Passion itself will disgust you because your passion will have failed to please you in the way you once thought it could. Then what will you do? More is not a goal; it is not a career. More is a desire, a craving, a lust for excess. Striving for more can kill you. Trying to be the best can make you tired and that fatigue can kill all ambition within you. I recently had a man tell me that he was irritated by the backup in deliveries with Amazon. When I asked him why he did not just go to the store and buy what he needed, he responded that he did not have time because he worked thirteen hours a day. Thirteen hours a day? But why? Why do that to yourself? What are you going to get out of it? I understand the person probably has more money than I do, but they cannot even find the time to spend the damn money if Amazon is experiencing delays for god's sake! In the old days, money gave you freedom. Today it cannot even get you a package delivered in a timely fashion. That is what perfection does to people. The will to be the best, to make the most money, to have the nicest car, to throw the biggest party, simply ends up making you a slave to the hustle, the grind, the rat race. You lose sight of that comfort you once thought your job would bring you. You become super pissed off that you cannot take that trip to Italy. So you work harder and harder and harder. Next thing you know, you cannot make time to spend with your loved ones anymore. You speak with them via text message, but only on the Holidays because those are your designated texting days now. No cellphones at that thirteen hour job. The boss might get upset. Maybe you feel lonely and want to get involved in a romantic relationship, but you don't have the time for that now because you have to get to work, so maybe you will have time to fall in love after you get that promotion in ten or twenty or thirty years, considering the company doesn't go under in that time of course. If it does then it will be more like forty years. But none of that matters. You do not need people in your life because, well, you have it all. You are wealthy, smart, pretty, and alone with practically no time for yourself or others, just how you like it. Isn't it grand? You did it. You are finally perfect like a beautifully built statue that people ignore on their way to work, that birds shit on from the sky. Sweet, smelly perfection