Perfection is the state of being completely without flaws or mistakes. A perfect score on a spelling test means you got every single word right. A perfect diamond has no cracks or cloudiness. A gymnast performing a perfect routine executes every move exactly as planned.

But perfection is tricky. In everyday life, true perfection is almost impossible to achieve. A baker might create a delicious cake, but maybe one side rose slightly higher than the other. A student might write an excellent essay, but perhaps one sentence could be smoother. Does that mean these efforts weren't good enough? Of course not.

This is why people often say “practice makes perfect”: the more you work at something, the closer you get to doing it flawlessly. But they also warn against perfectionism, which means refusing to accept anything less than perfect. A perfectionist might spend hours erasing and rewriting the same sentence, or give up on learning piano because they can't play a song flawlessly after just three tries.

Sometimes perfection means something is exactly right for its purpose, even if it has small flaws. Your grandmother's chocolate chip cookies might be perfectly chewy and delicious even if they're not all the same size.