Dear perfectionist,

...there is no such thing as the ideal 'perfect.'

You have burned countless candles, emptied thousands of cups of caffeine, and have worked your body until it had to shut you down. You have soaked a pillow with failure and have raised your frustration against silent walls; you run through a cycle of ink-stained fists never quite content with your latest work and yet still, you push through. Perfect is such a daunting word, and you strive to inject it into your very veins so much so that sometimes you forget to stop and breathe and see that -

- perfect is you.

Because no one else can see the world through your hopeful eyes. Because when others hit walls, you climb over them because you cannot stop until the mountain top has been reached and you are at the peak of the beyond. But even then you aren't satisfied with that because what is the beyond? No one knows, and you most definitely don't either, but you will try your hardest to define it and for that, I commend you with the most bittersweet smile. You are determined and persistent when others are bogged down by weariness. You will keep working despite your body and mind tearing at you to stop because your willpower is that strong.

You are a beacon of possible and impossible. You will always keep trying to make things work even when time itself has run out, and will never settle with being just content. You are so stubborn that you will never recognize perfection if it looked at you right in the eyes,

even if it looked at you through a mirror.

It's unfortunate that you cannot see what others can. That in lieu of hardworking hands you see the things you couldn't achieve. But honey, here is your validation that you are enough. There is no beauty and success in starving yourself from the commendation that you have already achieved. You have already reached the bar, so stop and listen. Let others take your burden, let our eyes tell you that what you have done is enough. It's moot point to keep pushing if you will only break once you reach the end.

So stop fidgeting, stop fretting, let someone else take your hands, and even if no one is there to hold them - to still them, to assure them that you've done more than enough - then still yourself. Be that voice of reason, or learn how to get that voice. Because you are perfect, or imperfectly perfect - whatever your view may be. You are enough, and sometimes, if you say it enough, you will not only believe it, but also finally see what others see too - that perfect is you.

From,

Another perfectionist