3 minutes read — thought of the day
Perfectionism Is an Excuse for Hiding in the Shade
Get out there and do
“Your work isn’t good. I don’t believe you will ever get it,” said the teacher.
Do you remember such discouraging words? No matter how much work you put into learning, it wasn’t ever good enough for the teacher.
Such experiences often started the character trait perfectionism or, as I like to call it, the perfect excuse for living in fear of other people’s opinions.
Don’t get me wrong; I am not trying to confuse diligent work with perfectionism's imperfect approach.
The first one is creating something useful for other people diligently and at some point being bold enough to get out on the market asking for feedback, harvesting the noes.
There will always be the first movers who love the initial minimum viable product, also the haters who will hate whatever product you put in front of them.
A diligent worker doesn’t fear rejection or criticism. He takes it, observes what is useful for his future work, and let go immediately of what isn’t helpful at all — like insults.
Perfectionism is the excuse not to go out on the market. When I experience the temptation of wanting something, I work on it to be perfect and start looking into my inner world; in the core of perfectionism, the feeling of fear hides. Fear of rejection, fear of other people’s opinions.
And sadly enough, such fear is holding many people back daily. Many start working on a new big goal: running a marathon, becoming a writer, or something similar. They start putting in the work, and after a couple of weeks, when the time to show the results of the work, they chicken out.
Why? Because they are afraid that someone might not like it. So they go back to put in more work and when the next time comes to present to the public what they were working on. Nothing.
This pattern can really become annoying not only to the person but also to the entire environment. Sam told me that he often sits in front of the computer, investing three hours writing the perfect mail — two sentences.
Another friend mentioned that she wanted to cook the perfect dinner for friends, and instead of doing the grocery shopping, start cooking — she watched Netflix for 3 hours. Why? She was afraid that her friends wouldn’t like what she cooked.
The reality of life is — nothing in this world is perfect. The art of living means to put in the work and be happy with the process of polishing a craft, a product, or service.
Getting yourself out there daily, knowing that putting in work will improve things, and no matter how great the progress is, there will always be rejection.
My martial arts teacher always said, “nothing in this world will ever be perfect. It is great to strive for perfection while putting in the work knowing that the perfect goal will never be reached. Above all, embrace the process of doing.”