Not One Mistake
Are you a perfectionist?
A perfectionist is someone who wants no mistake. He does not like seeing things not completely right. I guess i'm sort of one, though not completely.
But Asahina from "Diamond Dust Drops" is a complete perfectionist:
Asahina is a character from a not-so-famous anime called "Kita-e ~ Diamond Dust Drops". She is the director in her school's film-making club and she has won lots of awards. As a result, expectations on her are high and she became a perfectionist through time. The filming crew must be perfectly disciplined. The actors' acting must be perfect too. Every little imperfection ticks her off. Whenever she is not satisfied something, she totally cuts it off.
As a result, her life became very stressful as she constantly felt pressurised. Her daily life included her worrying about her latest film project everyday, with her thinking thoughts like "What if i don't win the award this year?" She became too critical with senseless films and she became angry at the filming club everyday. Her perfectionism didn't only cause herself to feel stressed, but it caused the whole club to feel tense too. Deciding that they had had enough of Asahina's unreasonably high expectations, the filming club did something to piss her off on purpose: Destroy the film they had been working on. Asahina could not take it and left the crew, intending to do up a film herself. So, she asked her boyfriend to accompany her to different places to film sceneries. However, none of the sceneries seemed to be perfect enough for her, so she didn't get anything done. Her boyfriend tried to remind her about the true purpose of filming: To enjoy the process. However, Asahina scolded him and said he did not understand the pressure she had been going through. She said that she would be happy if her boyfriend would stop bothering her.
And the next day, her boyfriend is gone. She had lost everything.
That was when she found a documentary sort of thing which her boyfriend made of her on the shelf.
It showed how she used to admit that she's just a novice, the times when awards were just extras to her and she filmed because she enjoyed it, not because she wanted to win. Asahina was astonished by who she used to be. That was when she finally realised that she was blinded by perfectionism.
Due to her perfectionism, she had lost everything.
I guess the moral of the story is pretty clear. Perfectionism can cause great stress to you and the people around you. If you seek perfection in everything, chances are, like Asahina, you get blinded. You get blinded that things are not good enough and you forget how to be satisfied.
And satisfaction is the key to happiness.
So what happened at the end of the story? Asahina actually learnt her lesson, and she began letting go of perfectionism. From then on, she smiled more and her life became happier. She eventually reunited with her boyfriend.
Of course, perfectionism has its good points: Higher expectations, better result. But still, nothing can be perfect. We all have to learn to be satisfied with what we have right now.
We can do that by technical means such as listing down things you should be grateful for. We can do that by repetitive thought patterns, like saying thank you to the world every morning. We can do that by looking at the bright side of the world.
Let go of perfection, and live life imperfectly. This is the beauty of life.
Story: Kita-e ~ Diamond Dust Drops by Red Entertainment
Image: http://www.animetaku.com/anime/kita-e-diamond-dust-drops::419.html
A perfectionist is someone who wants no mistake. He does not like seeing things not completely right. I guess i'm sort of one, though not completely.
But Asahina from "Diamond Dust Drops" is a complete perfectionist:
Asahina is a character from a not-so-famous anime called "Kita-e ~ Diamond Dust Drops". She is the director in her school's film-making club and she has won lots of awards. As a result, expectations on her are high and she became a perfectionist through time. The filming crew must be perfectly disciplined. The actors' acting must be perfect too. Every little imperfection ticks her off. Whenever she is not satisfied something, she totally cuts it off.As a result, her life became very stressful as she constantly felt pressurised. Her daily life included her worrying about her latest film project everyday, with her thinking thoughts like "What if i don't win the award this year?" She became too critical with senseless films and she became angry at the filming club everyday. Her perfectionism didn't only cause herself to feel stressed, but it caused the whole club to feel tense too. Deciding that they had had enough of Asahina's unreasonably high expectations, the filming club did something to piss her off on purpose: Destroy the film they had been working on. Asahina could not take it and left the crew, intending to do up a film herself. So, she asked her boyfriend to accompany her to different places to film sceneries. However, none of the sceneries seemed to be perfect enough for her, so she didn't get anything done. Her boyfriend tried to remind her about the true purpose of filming: To enjoy the process. However, Asahina scolded him and said he did not understand the pressure she had been going through. She said that she would be happy if her boyfriend would stop bothering her.
And the next day, her boyfriend is gone. She had lost everything.
That was when she found a documentary sort of thing which her boyfriend made of her on the shelf.
It showed how she used to admit that she's just a novice, the times when awards were just extras to her and she filmed because she enjoyed it, not because she wanted to win. Asahina was astonished by who she used to be. That was when she finally realised that she was blinded by perfectionism.
Due to her perfectionism, she had lost everything.
I guess the moral of the story is pretty clear. Perfectionism can cause great stress to you and the people around you. If you seek perfection in everything, chances are, like Asahina, you get blinded. You get blinded that things are not good enough and you forget how to be satisfied.
And satisfaction is the key to happiness.
So what happened at the end of the story? Asahina actually learnt her lesson, and she began letting go of perfectionism. From then on, she smiled more and her life became happier. She eventually reunited with her boyfriend.
Of course, perfectionism has its good points: Higher expectations, better result. But still, nothing can be perfect. We all have to learn to be satisfied with what we have right now.
We can do that by technical means such as listing down things you should be grateful for. We can do that by repetitive thought patterns, like saying thank you to the world every morning. We can do that by looking at the bright side of the world.
Let go of perfection, and live life imperfectly. This is the beauty of life.
Story: Kita-e ~ Diamond Dust Drops by Red Entertainment
Image: http://www.animetaku.com/anime/kita-e-diamond-dust-drops::419.html
Labels: anime/manga, preachy