I invite friends, colleagues and passers-by to speculate on a topic that can be very relevant - about the ideal in our world. The concept itself, its meanings and consequences in everyday life. In particular, this is about a fairly common phenomenon - perfectionism or excellent student syndrome. Which are quite serious cognitive distortions that ruin the lives of hundreds of people. I came across a post on Instagram “Imperfection in life - is there such a thing?” The author discusses at length that Imperfection is an illusion of the mind associated with a peculiarity of perception. “Everything is perfect from the point of view of life. Everything that happens in the world with each specific person has meaning. We just don’t always see and realize it.” Even my iron and unbending optimism and positivism trembled slightly. Alas, I want to argue a little. If life is perfect, does it mean it is ideal? Let me... The world, although it is the creation of God, is not ideal and perfect. Creation, of course, is ideal, but it lives and constantly changes, and in this sense there is no ideal. Perfection - we are talking about anything. At this moment we compare this state with another, not ideal one. For example, today I played a perfect table tennis match, wrote a text, cooked fish... So yesterday it was not ideal. Ideal is a moment, a moment. As is happiness. This is what the poet said: “Stop a moment - you are beautiful.” However, we do not live in a frozen moment, we live in time that moves. Perhaps physicists will correct me, but it is the presence of time that does not allow the ideal to exist. The ideal is just a beautiful blip on the time scale. Tomorrow may be worse, it may be better, but it is changing. I recently learned that the standard meter stored in the Chamber of Weights and Measures in Paris turns out to be decreasing over time.... Albeit very slowly. Yesterday, it seemed that the perfect ski suit had been created, but today a new membrane fabric has appeared and the suits have become much better. There is only one exception, but it only confirms the rule - a work of art, the frozen ideal of Mona Lisa’s smile, Rembrandt’s “Danae”... And that’s until the madman splashed acid. It seems that ancient Chinese wisdom says that there is no ideal also because... As soon as the assessment and comparison begins, ideality immediately disappears. Indeed, any assessment implies a certain position, a point of comparison, subjectivity and relativity. Of course, much has meaning and what happens to us - meetings, conversations, relationships, everything is not accidental. True, not all events are truly significant. And it is a great gift to be able to understand and see the signs of fate. For example, I now know for sure that, alas, I lost many opportunities by failing to read the highest plan. Everyone, after thinking a little, will find these forks of possibilities in their lives... These bifurcation points can turn your life 180 degrees. We, people, are given the right to choose, to believe or not, to accept gifts or not, to become this or that, to be with one woman (man) or with another. This is an infinitely kind gift from our creator. And it is precisely the presence of this free choice that can lead people to troubles, suffering, pain. We pay for this freedom. But at the same time we have been given the gift of love. All heights, breakthroughs and goodness. Everyone chooses for themselves. Why am I talking about this? At the beginning of my career, when I worked as an economist in the Nevsky branch of the bank, the largest in Russia and Eastern Europe, the Board suddenly requested an economic analysis for the annual report. I tried very hard: I wrote the text, made calculations and graphs, wrote conclusions and recommendations. As I remember now, he offered something global, and not savings on teapots. It seemed to me that the analysis was ideal. Out of all twenty departments at that time, my analysis was noticed, singled out, and after some time I was invited to work on the Board as the head of a department in the Economic Department. For many years, the story about ideal analysis was for me the cornerstone from which my super-successful career in the bank began. While sorting out the papers, I.