full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jon Bowers: We should aim for perfection -- and stop fearing failure

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

So it comes down to this: trying our best is not good enough. So how do we change? We seek perfection and seltte for nothing less.

Now, I know. I need to give you a mnutie on that, because I know what you've been told. It probably goes something like, pieocrfetn is impossible for humans, so therefore, seeking perfection will not only ruin your self-esteem but it will render you a failure. But there's the irony. See, today we're all so aairfd of that word failure, but the truth is, we need to fail. Failure is a natural stepping stone towards perfection, but at some point, because we became so afraid of that idea of failure and so afraid of that idea of perfection, we dismissed it because of what might happen to our egos when we fall short. I mean, do you really think that failure's going to ruin you? Or is that just the easy answer that gets us slow websites, sacry healthcare and dangerous rodas? I mean, are you raedy to make perfection the bad guy in all this? Look, fiuarle and imperfection are basically the same thing. We all know that imperfection exists all around us. Nothing and nobody is perfect. But at some pniot, because it was too difficult or too painful, we decided to dismiss our natural ability to deal with failure and replace it with a lower acceptance leevl. And now we're all forced to sit back and just accept this new norm or good-enough attitude and the rusetls that come with it.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

So it comes down to this: trying our best is not good enough. So how do we change? We seek perfection and ______ for nothing less.

Now, I know. I need to give you a ______ on that, because I know what you've been told. It probably goes something like, __________ is impossible for humans, so therefore, seeking perfection will not only ruin your self-esteem but it will render you a failure. But there's the irony. See, today we're all so ______ of that word failure, but the truth is, we need to fail. Failure is a natural stepping stone towards perfection, but at some point, because we became so afraid of that idea of failure and so afraid of that idea of perfection, we dismissed it because of what might happen to our egos when we fall short. I mean, do you really think that failure's going to ruin you? Or is that just the easy answer that gets us slow websites, _____ healthcare and dangerous _____? I mean, are you _____ to make perfection the bad guy in all this? Look, _______ and imperfection are basically the same thing. We all know that imperfection exists all around us. Nothing and nobody is perfect. But at some _____, because it was too difficult or too painful, we decided to dismiss our natural ability to deal with failure and replace it with a lower acceptance _____. And now we're all forced to sit back and just accept this new norm or good-enough attitude and the _______ that come with it.

Solution


  1. results
  2. settle
  3. point
  4. failure
  5. ready
  6. level
  7. scary
  8. roads
  9. afraid
  10. perfection
  11. minute

Original Text


(Laughter)

So it comes down to this: trying our best is not good enough. So how do we change? We seek perfection and settle for nothing less.

Now, I know. I need to give you a minute on that, because I know what you've been told. It probably goes something like, perfection is impossible for humans, so therefore, seeking perfection will not only ruin your self-esteem but it will render you a failure. But there's the irony. See, today we're all so afraid of that word failure, but the truth is, we need to fail. Failure is a natural stepping stone towards perfection, but at some point, because we became so afraid of that idea of failure and so afraid of that idea of perfection, we dismissed it because of what might happen to our egos when we fall short. I mean, do you really think that failure's going to ruin you? Or is that just the easy answer that gets us slow websites, scary healthcare and dangerous roads? I mean, are you ready to make perfection the bad guy in all this? Look, failure and imperfection are basically the same thing. We all know that imperfection exists all around us. Nothing and nobody is perfect. But at some point, because it was too difficult or too painful, we decided to dismiss our natural ability to deal with failure and replace it with a lower acceptance level. And now we're all forced to sit back and just accept this new norm or good-enough attitude and the results that come with it.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
seek perfection 3
seeking perfection 3
seemingly small 2
people die 2
acceptance level 2
high school 2
defining perfectionism 2


Important Words


  1. ability
  2. accept
  3. acceptance
  4. afraid
  5. answer
  6. attitude
  7. bad
  8. basically
  9. change
  10. dangerous
  11. deal
  12. decided
  13. difficult
  14. dismiss
  15. dismissed
  16. easy
  17. egos
  18. exists
  19. fail
  20. failure
  21. fall
  22. forced
  23. give
  24. good
  25. guy
  26. happen
  27. healthcare
  28. humans
  29. idea
  30. imperfection
  31. impossible
  32. irony
  33. laughter
  34. level
  35. minute
  36. natural
  37. norm
  38. painful
  39. perfect
  40. perfection
  41. point
  42. ready
  43. render
  44. replace
  45. results
  46. roads
  47. ruin
  48. scary
  49. seek
  50. seeking
  51. settle
  52. short
  53. sit
  54. slow
  55. stepping
  56. stone
  57. today
  58. told
  59. truth
  60. websites
  61. word