Are you a perfectionist?
Have you ever encountered a feeling where you find yourself pissed off because something is not working as it should?
Do you think that success is deliberately keeping away from you despite your good talent?
Have you experienced situations similar to what Chris encountered in below tale? Read on:
Talented Chris
Chris was an accomplished graphic artist. His artistic eyes could see what was usually not seen by the most.
He had a taste. He was smart. He had a business sense too and in his job, his superiors were happy with his work and so were his clients.
Chris seemed to have all the talents and skills to create the graphic design studio he had always dreamt of.
He had created a Business Plan; prioritized what needed to get done and started executing the plan.
Something is not working out
It has been one year now since Chris got the idea of starting on his own but he is not even halfway.
The reason? Chris set extremely high standards because of his “perfectionist” nature.
Chris set the standard that his office should be located in the richest area of the city, the BEST interior designer in the country should work for decorating his office and his specifics have to be 100% respected while procuring the office equipment.
The interior designer got convinced to work on Chris’s project but she was booked for several months so Chris had to wait. A compromise was not in his nature.
He also wanted to hire the best of the best artists for his studio.
He could inspire a couple of artists with his enthusiasm but since it took a lot of time to materialize, they lost interest and moved on.
More or less same things repeated and only a few things got done in the whole year. When Chris got the dates of an interior decorator, he had so many inputs and strong opinions that the interior decorator got upset and conveyed that she does not want to work on Chris’s project.
Reflection Time
One year of time and nothing accomplished. It is a heavy evening along with sad Chris reflecting on what went wrong.
Despite being so talented, full of energy and enthusiastic, what is keeping him away from achieving his dream?
I have seen it happening with many people around me.
We set an extremely high expectation for ourselves, our team and the work we are producing.
We dedicate the humongous amount of time, money and energy to maintain our high standards. Our passion for perfection drives us to produce expected results.
When we tend to be perfect, we think that stopping and giving way are not good things.
Often this dedication towards perfection helps us produce results… as long as we don’t get swept away with such perfectionism.
But, what happens when we get swept away with such perfectionism?
We become extremely unhappy when we fail to meet the insane goals we set for ourselves.
We experience an intense form of rejection and become hesitant to take on new challenges or continue projects that are ongoing.
The outcome? Stress. Ill health. Loss of trust in our own abilities and feeling of sorrow for our own self.
Stop Being Perfect.
Perfectionism is an illness. Perfectionists have a difficult time starting things and even more difficult time finishing them, every single time.
Perfectionism is the enemy of success.
Success comes to people who get things done. Getting things done means accepting imperfect things almost all the time that can get the work done.
Much better is to keep moving with less than perfect things while excelling ourselves by practicing.
Choose to be imperfect instead.
At first, it seems counter-intuitive but it is not. We often don’t ship things because we are trying to figure out the BEST possible way to ship.
Time spent in shipping, gathering feedback, and making your project better is time better spent than time spent in figuring out the best way to ship for the first time.
The key, as it turns out, is to figure out what amount of “imperfection” will work for your project and keep moving.
Sure, it’s not an easy skill but if we practice it over and over again, chances are pretty high that we will be able to get more things done despite choosing imperfection over perfection …
Getting things done plays the most important role in achieving success, being perfect does not.
Who do you want to be? Being successful or being perfect? Think for yourself.
