Is Discipline The Same As Perfection?

Staring at the audience in the conference room on the tenth floor of the Lancer’s Building, Gloria Madden nodded from the head of the twelve-foot wooden table, then turned to her boss and said, “I am sorry, but I can’t take the position you are offering me.”

“But you are perfect for this job,” Steven Moore said, raising his hands in the air, staring at his employees.

“Yes, she is! Yes, she is!” her coworkers sang.

Gloria sighed, her memory taking her back to ten years ago when she was first employed as a CPA for the Townsend Group of Companies.

“You have never been late for work for the ten years you’ve been employed here,” Steven compliments.

“My body clock is set because I had to get to school at 7:30 every morning, and I live an hour and a half away from my school,” she explained her punctuality.

“None of your assignments or duties on the job were late either,” Steven went on.

“My mother ensures that all of my assignments, projects, and homework while in school are done promptly, days before they are due,” Gloria recalls.

“You always do more than you should, volunteering for services other employees turn down,” he recalls her service to his company.

“Someone volunteered to help me when I was a child,” Gloria says, explaining her reason for volunteering to help the children in the community that the company provided support for.

“So, you are giving back the kindness you get?” Steven asked.

“My mom demands I don’t take unless I am willing to give,” she informs him.

“Is she honest?” Steven asks.

“She does use common sense with lies,” a voice nearby informs.

What does that mean?” Steven asks.

“She wants the truth, always,” the same voice answered.

“My mother says, ‘The truth will often depend on which side you are on and how you benefit from it. She believes the ones who don’t benefit from the truth will fight like hell to keep it hidden—the opposite for the ones who do. I like the truth; lies interfere with our memories. The truth doesn’t,” Gloria explained.

“Damn, she is right!” Several coworkers agreed.

“Because with the truth, you don’t have to remember what you said,” Steven informs them.

“She's smart,” someone whispered.

“Your workstation is clean and organized,” he compliments her again.

Gloria nodded in furled brows and elaborated, “My mother likes order and a clean house. She believes order can simplify our lives, and a clean environment improves our health.”

“Wow!” Steven said, smiling at her. “None of your coworkers can say anything negative about you. You seem to get along with everyone,” he went on, staring at her in intrigue.

“No one gets along with everyone,” Gloria noted, nodding.

“You manage to. How?”

“My mother believes the secret to getting along with others is taking the time to know them,” she elaborates.

“All thirty of them?” Steven asked in surprise.

“I spent more time at work than I spent with my family.”

“See, why you are the perfect person for this position?”

Staring directly into his eyes, Gloria asked, “Do you believe in the power of words, Sir?”

Confusion lined his forehead, then he said, “Yes?”

“So, you would agree that the right words at the right time are nourishment for the body, mind, and soul,” Gloria recited Annelise Lord’s words.

Steven’s head sank to his feet for a moment as the audience gasped.

“I don’t like perfection, Sir, because one mistake and the same persons who handed me this position will nail me to a cross for making a mistake. Around here, I am Miss Perfect,” she reminds them, recalling many times she was called that name and chastised for making simple mistakes.

“Mistakes are lessons for me, Sir, and I am not perfect; I am disciplined. I was raised by a single mother who showed me that my decisions are my life, and my life is my decision. So, I must be careful of what I do and how I live.”

Silence held every heart, mind, and soul, and Steven broke it when he apologized.

“I am so sorry. You are right. You are not perfect; you are disciplined. And that’s the reason for your success.”

“Thank you,” Gloria agreed.

Steven sighed, then teased, “The position is still yours.”

Gloria smiled, then educates, “Our thinking can be a friend or foe, and right now, it isn’t a friend. I can’t take a position where the people under me think I am perfect. That will prevent me from doing a good job because I will have to please everyone. And no one can please everyone!”

I am disciplined and am often called perfect by humans who don’t know the difference between discipline and perfection. I don’t like perfection, and as Gloria said, one mistake, and I am often crucified and chastised, as if I were a child, by humans who are unaware that mistakes are lessons.

If your heart could speak, what would it say?

I am disciplined, not perfect!

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.