How To Be Perfect

How to Be Perfect

The Good Place is one of my favorite shows ever. In fact, all of the shows that Michael Schur has written for or been a part of would be in my top 10 and maybe in my top 5. When I saw he was releasing a book about moral philosophy I knew I had to read it.

Reading/listening to this book was a really good overview of the different viewpoints in moral philosophy. Over the past several years I have spent a significant amount of time trying to better understand myself and my beliefs about the world. Having been raised in a high-demand religion and fully participating in that church into my late 20s, I found myself wondering what it is I truly believe and what it is I want to teach to my children. I found that reading this book was a nice reminder of the different views, and it helps me formulate my own personal worldview.

The one point that really stuck out to me from the book was about “moral sainthood”. For most of my life, I strived to be “perfect”. I would constantly examine my choices to see if there was anything I needed to cut out of my life or do better at. I was always looking for ways that I was falling short. It is something I still struggle with today, and I try not to be judgemental of myself or others around me. I tried to be a “moral saint”. Learning to give myself a break is not an easy thing to do, but it has been extremely helpful to my mental health.

I didn’t find anything in the book extremely profound or groundbreaking. Just good reminders of things I’ve come across previously. The book was well written though, and makes philosophical concepts understandable. My favorite quote from the book comes from the last line of the last chapter. “Keep trying, Keep trying, Keep trying.” That’s really all we can do.