I have just finished reading a great biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson; a fascinating story of a very complex man. He was driven by his vision of perfection and it seems many would testify he could drive others to distraction and tears.
The author gives many insights into Jobs’ personality showing why he became the CEO of the richest company in the world. When he faced criticism regarding the iPhone he declared “We’re not perfect. Phones are not perfect. We all know that. But we want to make our users happy”. What a simple philosophy that set me thinking about perfection and our desire for it.
Human design is not perfect, the human body can malfunction in a way more spectacular than any man-made product but it can also function in that same spectacular way. Our hospitals are full of malfunctioning humans and also of high achieving humans working hard to put us back together, maybe even better than before. Sadly Mr. Jobs lost his fight against human design but left a magnificent legacy of perfection and simplicity, not only in design but in living an honest, worthy life. He tried so many ways to improve his health and didn’t give up on the possibility of perfection and we shouldn’t either.

Rather than thinking we have problems perhaps we should redefine our outlook. To quote Mr. Jobs again “We’re not perfect” but maybe we should embrace the possibilities of improvement and challenge. How do you know how good you can become if you never try? How do you know you cannot run a marathon if you never put on your trainers? How do you know you cannot write a book if you never put pen to paper? To steal a well-worn phrase how do you know you cannot make an omelette if you never break an egg?
Steve Jobs lived his life to his own standards and created a lasting legacy for the world, he did actually change the world in which we live. What is stopping you from doing the same?
Perfection (part two)
I wrote last time about the excellent biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. Steve Jobs really had a devotion to work arguably unrivaled in the business world. His methods were effective but much more … challenging than my own. He was, however, very much aligned personally with his work, striving for perfection in both.

I think it is important that we are aligned with our own work; it is such a large part of a life and a part that can bring great rewards. Otherwise work becomes just a job, something we do because we have to rather than because we want to. Mr. Jobs was so in tune with his chosen field he knew what the public needed before we even knew we wanted it! He was visionary.

The life of a massage therapist has parallels to this vision in that many of the people who come to us don’t always know what they have done to cause injury. They may acknowledge pain, injury or stress but not be able to see a clear way to change the patterns and rid themselves of what they perceive as a problem. It is my job to try to put pieces of information together and ask relevant questions to unravel the issues and come up with a program to help. I love this investigative part of my job and feel it is just as important to know when I cannot help as when I can. This isn’t easy as it would be great to help everyone but massage doesn’t work for everyone and it is important that I recognise that and don’t waste people’s time and money. Having said that when I can help unraveling a condition and looking for self-help avenues is so interesting, we really are fascinating beings! Not perfect but potentially so!