Why Your Progress is more Important than Perfection

“People call me a perfectionist, but I’m not. I’m a rightist. I do something until it’s right, and then I move on to the next thing.” ― James Cameron

Work is a journey not a goal

If you achieved your dreams, your goals, and your perfect lifestyle without being a perfectionist, how would you feel about that?

Perfectionism is a trap that we get caught up in when we don’t understand our real motivations.

Perfectionism seems like a good thing at first, but then it soon takes over and becomes a goal in itself.

The real tools for achievement have nothing to do with being a perfectionist.

Perfectionism is Ruining People’s Lives

Studies carried out by Thomas Curran and Andrew Hill between 1989 and 2016 have discovered that perfectionism in students, in the U.K., the USA, and Canada, has increased dramatically since the 1990s and previous years.

Perfectionism has become so prevalent that it’s running towards an epidemic among young people who feel enormous pressure to achieve high results.

The trap occurs when people don’t understand how to achieve their goals, and that they will not achieve them in a short period of time. Perfectionism offers a type of reassurance that if you follow the routines set out, you will achieve the goal without the hassle of set-backs and disappointments.

This type of thinking often leads to depression and anxious mental states that cause de-motivation, and frustration.

Imagination and Creative Energy cause things to Happen

Imagine if the way to your goals was rife with obstacles, new situations that baffled you, let-downs and set-backs, you’d have to admit, it would have been a hell of a journey.

“When you’re passionate about something, you want it to be all it can be. But in the endgame of life, I fundamentally believe the key to happiness is letting go of that idea of perfection.” Debra Messing

But if it changed your lifestyle and became a permanent positive situation, it would probably turn out to be what you wanted in the first place.

That sort of unplanned outcome happens all the time among successful people.

Most people who go through the tough stuff, and stick it out through thick and thin, learn a lot about themselves and life. When they decide on another new goal in life, they are ready for the twisty roads ahead and know that perfectionist thinking will get them nowhere.

Look for the Value of your Goals

A film maker sets out to create a work of art, a great piece of cinema that will entertain audiences around the Globe. If he or she allows perfectionism to get in the way of artistic discovery, then they will be blocking their own progress. The nature of the goal requires flexibility, and real motivation to achieve the goal of creating something extremely entertaining, a film — audiences don’t look for perfection in a film, nor in a book. They do look for entertainment, and the resonance found in the take-away you get from a good story.

The same goes for a business selling products, customers don’t inspect the business, its set-up and its management system to see if the owner built it to perfection. They are there to satisfy their own needs through using the product.

Imagine if you started out, aiming to be in business at 25 years old, you hustled and strived for excellence. And finally, after the journey to get there taught you more than you at first knew, you reached your goal, or something like it. But the results were so good, you wouldn’t give them up for anything.

I wouldn’t sniff at it, and age doesn’t make a difference.

People always have reason to put themselves under pressure for getting things perfectly right; not much time, prove a point before reaching a certain age, or to make a massive change in life — better plan it all perfectly.

Perfect thinking will create a block in progress that ensures that the goal is forgotten, and the perfection takes priority over the purpose of achieving success.

Progress gives feedback

People who need to follow a path of perfectionism tend to live with the anxiety that at any moment, something could go wrong; they aren’t equipped to deal with the negative feedback that comes with small failures. Perfectionism won’t allow it.

Strive for excellence, but with Passion

If you strive towards your goals with an open mind and a passion that drives you, you will discover that it becomes so important that you will naturally set high standards. High standards create strong motivation and a sense of vision in the task.

“Your potential, the absolute best you’re capable of — that’s the metric to measure yourself against. Your standards are. Winning is not enough. People can get lucky and win. People can be assholes and win. Anyone can win. But not everyone is the best possible version of themselves.” Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday wrote a damned good book about achievement. I think some people misunderstand his message in the book Perennial Seller. He talks about achieving a high standard, a great outcome through hard work and precise knowledge of the work.

From reading online comments and thoughts it seems some readers seem to think he was writing about perfectionism. Far from it.

Having high standards that are inline with yourself, your capabilities, is being realistic. Those standards give you a marker to work against, to edge up to, and see what happens.

We can never fully know the result of our work, we only know that work and dedication, coupled with high standards and motivation reaps rewards.

Perfection destroys your motivation

Goal setting is about finding out which outcomes you want in life. Those outcomes could be short-term, or long-term. The fact is, most people never reach their goals as envisioned, they find out more and more about the goal and how it relates to their real needs as they work along the path to attainment. The goal changes, or it morphs into something similar but not the same as before.

Perfectionism cannot abide deviations from a set goal. If a person decides that taking a new route in the journey to success is needed, the mentality of perfectionism will cause a deflation of motivation, and stress will build up inside.

Think deeply about Your Goals and Enjoy the Journey

Goals represent the perfect idea of an outcome, so it’s fairly obvious when we set out to realize a goal our work is to bring that static idea of an end result to life.

We must always allow for flexible thinking that helps us to make smart decisions along the way, to play the game on the move, learn from negative results and move on.

Bringing something to life is like transcribing your vision into reality. The focus we achieve by taking ourselves seriously enough to set a high standard of work, and to turn up for the task each day, is how we make that vision materialize into solid reality.