So many projects and initiatives never see light of day because the creator believed that it was not perfect. Such a shame because many of those things could have truly helped people who had a need for that information / product / service…
I know this because I have succumbed to this pressure of being perfect many times myself. Many more times than I would care to admit actually.
I was listening recently, on a podcast, to author Adam Grant talk about his own addiction to being perfect and how it is so much more rewarding to try to strive for excellence rather than perfection. I completely agree with Adam and wanted to write some words about that myself in this article.
If you’re a religious person, you most likely have that belief that nobody is perfect except God.
If you’re not a religious person, I can still bet that you don’t think that anyone in this world is perfect.
No matter what our beliefs are, we all know this in the back of our mind that none of us are perfect and nothing we do can be truly perfect either. Yet, it still ends up blocking us from getting stuff done at times because we feel that our creation (ex: product, project, article, video, etc) is not ready just yet. Much like this article that I’m writing. If I keep on thinking about this subject, I’m sure I will think of something new every single day. But if I really want others to read what I am writing so I will eventually have to click “publish” ☺️
Adam’s notion of striving for excellence instead of perfectionism is very thought-provoking. You might be asking at this point: how can something be excellent unless it’s perfect…?
I think the answer lies in the question. By definition, excellence means “extremely good” and surpassing ordinary standards. Notice that it does not say perfect. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excellence
I would go even as far as saying that perfection is the enemy of excellence.
The practically unachievable goal of perfection holds us back from being our excellent selves.
You have to ask yourself: how many plans or projects do you have that are just in the phase of strategy, planning, half baked or “almost done”? I have lots on my plate for sure and I can bet you have many as well that you can list out.
So then the next question we have to ask ourselves: isn’t it better to either call it quits for certain things or take it to completion to the best of our ability and “click publish”?
That is exactly what I’m about to do right now and click publish on this article. I hope you can do the same and let the world benefit from your knowledge and wisdom. Best wishes! 👍