The Art of Imperfection, simple ways to make peace with yourself

This is the title of a book I bought for myself several years ago. It is full of some good ideas and sprinkled with a little craziness here and there, but, there are parts that are worth sharing. I thought I'd start a little mini series focusing on different things for all of us self-critics out there. :) The ideas that come from the book I will put in quotations.

We'll start here:

Part 1 -The art of of making a mistake

"Imagine a different world, one in which people don't spend an inordinate amount of energy fuming against their fate each time they make a mistake. A world in which one takes for granted that if things can go wrong, they probably will.

It would be so civilized. Folks would bump into furniture, miss deadlines, get lost on the way to the airport, forget to return phone calls, and show up at parties a day early, without getting unduly annoyed with themselves.

You and I would not be personally insulted when we dropped the sugar bowl, backed the car into the mailbox, burned dinner while on the phone, or failed to meet quarterly projections.

Dream on. This forgiving world is as utopian a vision as Shangri-La. Though we all agree that to err is human, each of us individually believes that he or she is the exception. What's good enough for you, isn't good enough for me. Make a mistake? Not on my watch!.....

Unfortunately, thinking that being right will save us from being wrong is a misapprehension.

Today some of the most advanced electronic devices, from satellites to pacemakers, are engineered to be partly inconsistant, in accordance with the dramatic findings of "chaos scientists."

A case in point is an energy-efficient Japanese dishwasher designed to be "chaotic," that gets china, glass, and silverware cleaner by using two rotating arms that spin erratically.

Next time you break a plate, lose your keys, or jump to false conclusions, why not take it in stride? Consider the possibility that there is a hidden pattern to your random acts of blunderism....Chaos follows precise rules and patterns."