Striving for Perfection

For those of u who don't know, i happen to be a civil engineer. (Yes a slacker like me became a Civil Engineer.... but that another story altogether)

Anyway, i went on a quality inspection of some of the buildings being constructed on my site
with my bosses (some senior engineers) representing the owners of the building, while there was another party, from another company who represented the project managers, the ppl in charge of actually getting the building built.

Needless to say, the party of project managers were shitting bricks.

Along our inspection, my boss, kept highlighting deficiencies in the building (no it wasn't that structurally serious......... no buildings are going to collaps in town) but at the same time they were noticeable.

Anyway, at the end of this very long walk through i was talking to one of the project managers who i am very cool with and feeling a bit sorry for, and i said "like we frustrated u today girl."
and she said "No, its not that, its just that on a project this size you can always expect little imperfections, and everyone comes down hard on u because of it."

And i was sympathetic with her; nothing is ever expected to be perfect.

And that day passed and we went on with our lives (tra la la la la)

But then some time afterward i was thinking about it again: Nothing is ever expected to be perfect.

And i wondered to myself : Why Not ??

Why is it so easy to settle for second place or second best?
Why is so easy to reach so close to doing something perfectly and saying " That'll do" , or "That's good enough".

Its a serious problem i have with myself, I always reach a point at which i am satisfied and i stop.
I was ALMOST alotta things. But i always get knocked out in the penultimate or ultimate round. Forever second or second best. Even though I've done "well", its depressing.

But i think its a wider problem than just me, i see it all the time in society, especially Trinidadian society. We reward and uphold mediocrity.

we go to the gym a few weeks, put on a lil bit of muscle tone, feel satisfied with that and stop to return to being the blabbering slobs we truely are.

Of course perfection can never be reached, But is that a reason to not strive for it?
Are we that cowardly and afraid of disappointment that we lower our standards to feel satisfied ?

Things can always be done better, why settle what is "attainable" ?
I say never feel satisfied in outcomes, always keep wanting and aiming for the scarce, the unreachable, the perfect?