Your goal for perfection is actually hurting you.
Striving to achieve 100% in all you do may end up getting you less value. Let me explain.
The
cost of achieving 80% is far less than achieving 100%. Often reaching 100% is
more than double the cost. You are better off getting the job done and moving on to the next job.
Accomplish your job, reach your goals, and be happy with it. Doing so you will achieve far more. You pay more and don’t get more marginal value on the 80-100% stretch.
Effectiveness can be defined as a balance between your ability to produce and what you produce (
Covey). You often reduce your ability to produce when you try to squeeze perfection out of your production line (personal or physical).
Always striving for 100% can lead to a lot of
stress and distraction from your actual goal. Often perfectionist are banging their heads to get their project or job the past few percentage to achieve 100%. All that extra effort, more often than not, will not get the result they are hoping for. They end up spending hours and hours and only.
There may be a
rare exception where 100% is expected and necessary; however, on an ongoing basis, such a practice of perfection is never sustainable. The reason is that the goal keeps moving. The
definition of success keeps getting higher and higher of a bar to pass. Simply put, if it is a common occurrence, it is contrary to the definition of perfection. Moreover the definition is relative, too, one man’s perfection may be another man’s failure. For most people it simply means the best. This is a good occasional achievement, but over a sustained period of time, it will hurt you.
This is true in many areas of life. I remember talking to CEOs and business managers, who avoid the Straight A+ students because those students will get hung up on trying to line up all the dots as opposed to moving the project along. Perfectionism is difficult to unlearn because of the occasional value we get from perfectionism.
Here are my Anti-Perfectionism tips:
- 80% is good enough
- You don’t have enough time to get everything done
- What are your top priorities? You can focus on 3 – 5 things.
- Diluted focus dilutes your power
- Failure will happen. How you react to it is what makes you great.
- Don’t be afraid to fail. Meet failure with courage
- Happiness is a state of mind.
- Love yourself where you are today.
- It only matters what we think about ourselves.
- When we are afraid, we don’t play big, we play small, and don’t fail. That is losing.
- Feel the fear and do it anyway. Play big and win.
- Glory is rising every time we fall. Fail over and over again.
- Be pernicious. Be persistent.
- Give feedback that is actionable.
Exit the Path of Perfectionism by being happy with getting the job done at 80%.
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