Perfection in an imperfect world

My sister-in-law SG recently gave a talk at her church entitled "Following Christ's Admonition of Perfection in an Imperfect World". The whole talk was very well done. I especially liked this excerpt regarding a Mormon missionary:

One day, MK and his companion spent the day tracting and working with new members. They were walking home, when they saw a young girl who was hurt and crying. MK stopped, took out his handkerchief, and wiped this young girl’s tears and the blood as best he could. He wrapped his handkerchief around the cut. Then he held her until she stopped crying He left his handkerchief with her. Recounting the events in his journal, he wrote, “On this day, I did what Jesus would have done. Today I was perfect.”

As a "recovering perfectionist", I've spent a large portion of my life trying to be perfect - but certainly (unfortunately) not in the way described in this talk. After this example, SG commented that a perfect day is not when everything goes right for you but when you choose the right way or when nice things happen to you but when you are able to be nice. I think that's a great way of looking at things.

There was another example in SG's talk that I found intriguing - the idea of fasting from the world for a month (not all that different from Ramadan in Islam).

The bishop in my sister’s ward often gives his ward members challenges. For three years now, the January challenge has been to fast from the world for a month, turning off the television, videos, and video games, avoiding movies, popular magazines, and popular radio stations. Through this fast from the world, many of the ward members have found spiritual strength, just as fasting from food gives us spiritual strength. Sacrifice brings us closer to perfection.

Honestly, I don't know if I could pull this off but it is intriguing. There are just so many distractions in life that it's often hard to focus on the things that matter the most.