Nine things are presented in James as worthless (not exhaustive):

1. Prayer without faith
2. Faith without works
3. Patience without endurance
4. The body without the Spirit
5. Self-control of the body without a bridled tongue
6. Doing the law and simultaneously judging a brother
7. Knowing what is good and failing to do it
8. Friendship with the world as well as friendship with God
9. And fervency without righteousness

What's the point, you ask? Why would I bring this up? Don't we already have enough lists of perfection to measure up to...?

In Western society, we have a this vain idea of perfection that can absolutely never be reached. 
We attempt to attain it alone and in our own strength, not caring what or who we are stumbling over to reach our "perfection."
This is not the Biblical idea of perfection.
The Bible doesn't inform us that we are capable of being super-humans, in fact, quite the opposite. We are dead in our sin; useless, powerless, inoperative, wanting...

The word for "perfect" in the Greek is "teleios," a word that denotes completeness, wholeness, maturity, wanting nothing...

James 1:4 puts it this way: "But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (emphasis mine)

Take a look at the list again.  It's not saying "reach this perfection or heaven is unattainable." It's saying, "Come. Come and be clean. Be whole. Let the Master Potter mold and shape you into an honorable vessel, able to be used by Him." It's a call of love, a desire that God's people would not be half-hearted, half-devoted and half-alive.

Think about some of the things on this list. Have you ever tried to do one of these things without having the other part?
 I've had moments in my life of exceeding fervency, but I was unclean and not useful to my Master... I've known moments of desperate prayer, but faith in a Sovereign, unchanging, good Father was nonexistent...I've known times of striving to meet God's standards, but judging those who didn't put forth the same self-conjured effort...
Any one of these things without its counterpart leads to  emptiness. Embracing religion and not Jesus Christ is like storing up barns full of riches only to see them rot and have them as a witness against you, a mark of the vanity which consumed your life...

Allow the Lord Jesus to complete you! He is worthy of every part of you.