by Arielle Antonio, contributor
Perfection is unattainable given that we are human and humans make mistakes. Yet, the pursuit of perfection is not a wasted effort. Giving only 50 percent towards something worth doing is acceptable. Why would you draw a stick figure and say it’s the best you can do when it absolutely is not the best you can do? Does Jay-Z burp at a concert, drop the mic and then say it was the best he could do? Did Martin Luther King, Jr. take one step in the direction of Washington D.C. and then say it was the best he could do? I think not, my friend. Anything worth doing is worth doing well.
Pride gets a bad rap sometimes. In Christianity, it is one of the seven deadly sins. A common saying is,“Pride cometh before the fall.” However, pride can also be a great motivator in life to do better work all the time.
Had Charlayne Hunter-Gault not written her memoir “In My Place” so well, I might never have seriously pursued any kind of writing. As one of the first African-American attendees of University of Georgia, Hunter-Gault’s life story inspired me to become a writer. There is nothing wrong in taking pride in doing those things that are important to you. It can push you to higher heights, which can in turn inspire others to reach higher for themselves. That is beautiful and more people should be guilty of this type of pride.
I take immense pride in the work that I do. As a writer and designer, I do my utmost to give people my best work, but I don’t just do it for them. I do it for my own sake. I want to be proud of what I’ve done. I want to look back at that package design, or that article, and think to myself, “Yeah… I put my foot in that!” If it wasn’t the greatest, it won’t be for lack of trying. I know I will have given it my 200 percent, so I’ll pick myself up and work harder to be better at it. For me, writing and designing are worth doing and I want it to be as excellent as possible.
A great example would be this very article. I started this in an entirely different way the first time around. As I read it aloud to myself, I wasn’t pleased with it and I scrapped it. I started all over again from the top because what I had wasn’t the best I could do. Now I have something that I’m proud of — that I can say I put my all into. And if I can touch at least one person with these words, I’d say that’d be the cherry on top.
