A rotten branch will be found in every tree.

Thursday's are Viking quote days although I'm doing every second Thursday now and interspersing my, think like a leader, series on the alternate day. Sometimes I choose a quote randomly and sometimes based upon relevance or meaning to my life, and share some thoughts on it. These thousand year old phrases still offer value in modern society. _{original im src}

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This week's Viking quote

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A rotten branch will be found in every tree.

_{- The Saga of Olaf Haraldsson -}

I do not believe perfection exists and neither do I think it's healthy for a person to seek it because failing to achieve something that isn't attainable in the first place simply sets someone up for disappointment. Working towards continuous improvement, on the other hand, is a much better way to find a sense of achievement and it's attainable.

I used to put a lot of pressure upon myself to perform at high levels and I'd even attain them sometimes but, when I didn't, I felt bad about the entire process; it was very limiting behaviour. I'd also never stop to celebrate success or a result achieved, just immediately look for the next. Little by little it weighed me down. When I switched to seeking continual improvement and actually rewarding myself for attaining a goal, my results improved dramatically.

In looking at the quote this week, I've chosen to suggest that nothing is perfect and I've lived enough of life to agree completely. With this in mind, I have to also say that, no person is perfect.

I had a situation recently in which someone I thought well of, respected and liked, acted in a manner unbecomming. The actions that individual took left me thinking less of them and that made me feel sad and disappointed because I don't want to think that way about them...but I do.

I'm one of those people who is happy to adjust how I see, feel or respond to a person; I am able to draw a line beneath people and simply move on without another thought of them coming to mind. It's not always easy to do, but it's required because I don't feel it's wise to surround myself with the wrong people; they are not worthy of me. I've been been brutally efficient at doing so with people that were once very close to me and that's been a rather terrible thing to do sometimes, other times it's been easy, especially those who have shown themselves to be people I am far better off without, those underserving of G-dog types.

It's worked to my advantage mostly, but it's meant that relationships with people I've valued and liked, have ended.

Over time, I've come to understand that even seemingly good situations or people can have negative aspects to them and this is especially so with relationships. They can ebb and flow back and forth; they are never perfect and thinking of them that way, or trying to make them that way is a fools errand. People are flawed and fallible, it's a human condition.

This doesn't mean we have to accept other people's behaviours that compromise ourselves, leave us feeling negative, hurt or unhappy, but understanding that perfection doesn't exist can go a long way towards keeping relationships together and wholesome; I mean any person to person relationships here.

Sometimes, most of the time actually, a little understanding is required and sometimes cutting a person off is the best, or only, way forward. The trick is knowing which is relevant and when. Understanding that nothing is perfect helps in this process, no matter which direction or choices are chosen.

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That's it for this week, a thousand year-old Viking quote reminding us that nothing and nobody is perfect no matter how it may seem and evaluating the situation, applying understanding, can be advantageous to determien a path forward.

There are so many ways this quote could be perceived and I've just written about one aspect. Please feel free to disagree with my interpretation and add your own in the comments below.

Skol.

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