PERFECTIONISM SUCKS |
There is a lie that all perfectionists tell themselves: “I just want to be sure it is good.” The “it” in question here could be anything: a work initiative, a home improvement project, or even an article for a blog that has an audience of four.
And who could argue? Who wants to do bad work? What’s wrong with putting forth the effort that results in a quality outcome? Let me be perfectly clear; There is nothing wrong with putting forth your best effort. Or wanting to deliver value to your customer, or even the satisfaction that you “left it all out on the field.” But when you hear yourself saying “I just want to be sure it’s good,” you need to keep a sharp lookout for the wily jerk that is perfectionism. Perfectionism takes a perfectly reasonable goal (doing your best) and twists it into something insidious that traps you in an endless cycle of reviewing, scrutinizing and modifying. Perfectionism masquerading as “good” is the sort of trap that can lead someone to not post to their audience-of-four-blog for several weeks despite having SIXTEEN articles in the hopper that are all at least 90% complete (purely hypothetical situation of course). So the big question is: How do you know if you are really just wanting something to be good, or if you are letting your inner perfectionist run wild? I find it helpful to ask myself: Why does this need to be “good?” If it’s because you want to your customers have the best possible experience, you might be ok. Good for you. I’m not at all jealous of your healthy and reasonable perspective. If the reason you want something to be good is because you are trying to avoid judgement or criticism… well my friends, welcome to the land of sixteen unpublished articles. It’s nice to see you, pull up a chair and get comfortable. I have a few theories but this one is clearly not going to be solved tonight. See you soon, Kristin
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Perfectionism really is the worstTrust me, I'm not trying to humble brag about perfectionism. I fought and kicked and denied like a champion... until one day... Archives
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