Zero Margin Stress

Hardly would I say I am a perfectionist, yet I do have a thing for high standards and for plans to go as designed. That's me when I'm passionate about whatever it may be. I have often found that to help me in many situations to succeed, but there was sometimes a hitch that caused me a lot of stress.

During my time as class governor for my classmates at the university, I was often frustrated. Managing people is much different than when you have only yourself as the only variable to worry about. And it took me a while to realize something I could have done differently for my sanity.

When we'd have class presentations to make—usually a defense for some project we did—for example, I would need to organize it. And that often included preparing refreshments for our lecturers, getting everyone's work tendered beforehand, and things like that. There's always one comma, full stop, or question mark. Somebody or some people would make it harder for me.

At the end of the day, things wouldn't go as planned and would just stress me. Ultimately, I'd be feeling weary when it's time for my own presentation. Thankfully, I still always nailed it. I think. But why stress, though?

It broke me down one time. The stress stretched me hard because I let it. I then began to realize with time that I will not always be able to control everything. All I can do is what I'm only able to do, and to do that as best as I can.

So here's what I do now. After all's been done and said in preparation, and some misalignment happens out of my control, I just smile and embrace the moment. I take it as it is, only salvaging if possible. What happens after is freedom.

When I take an objective look, I see that I would probably be the only person who's seeing what's not going right, and everyone else is just living in the moment. Why then should I stifle my enthusiasm or allow myself to be weighed down by something only I am noticing? Nah, I'm just going to accept that perfection is an ideal, and ideals aren't practical.