You Shouldn’t Strive for Perfection

Why learning to take imperfect action will give you better results.

Chasing perfection is a bad habit that we all fall into at times. It can happen with work, personal projects, life changes we want to make; you name it — anything can suffer from the drive for perfection. We just want things to be done right.

But when we push for perfection, we end up stressing ourselves out. We waste a lot of time in the process, for little gain, and that dominos into affecting other parts of our life.

I know that’s how my perfectionist habits make me feel.

As a game developer, working on high profile projects for the last 15 years, everything needed to be perfect. There were always crazy deadlines, always the asks for more changes, and still the expectation that everything would also be perfect. I’ve sacrificed so many extra hours during nights and weekends, in the drive for perfection.

One major publisher that I worked for had a corporate value of “Good enough isn’t.”

Think about what that statement for a minute.

On the surface, it sounds like a great rallying cry to always take things to the next level and question what you’re doing. But how sustainable or healthy is that mindset? If everything you do isn’t good enough, what are you doing? Is your work even of value if it’s never good enough?

Without realizing it, over time, I have adopted a subconscious mindset of perfection in most of my work. It’s something I’ve been working on over the last year, learning to let things go a bit more, but I have a long way to go.

This attitude reared back up in me this weekend when I was preparing to release my first short story. I spent several hours editing it — too many hours, honestly. Never mind that I’ve written over 30 well-recieved pieces of non-fiction in the last month, to me, that first piece of fiction needed to be perfect if I was going to be a fiction writer.

When I realized I was spinning, chasing the unattainable, I finally decided enough was enough and published the piece.

Is it perfect? No, and it’s still to think that my first attempt at anything would be, but that’s what perfectionism does to you.

But now that it’s done and published, I can put my energy into something new. And honestly, that feels so much better.

This weekend was a big reminder that I still need to be vigilant about how I take on projects, and how ‘perfect’ I think they need to be.

While I still have a ways to go with letting go of perfection in my work, I’ve picked up a few useful tips over the last few years that help me refocus when I get caught in the compulsion to be perfect. They help me understand why the mindset is so unhealthy, and just a huge waste of my time and energy.

Here are the things that you should remind yourself about any time you see your focus narrowing on attaining perfection.

What is Perfection Anyways?

Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing — Harriet B. Braiker

When you push for perfection, you’re chasing a moving goal. There’s always more to do if you go looking. But we get caught up in it because the hustle feels like progress, even though it’s not.

Something needs to be cleaner. But after you clean it up, it’s too clean, so it needs to be roughed up a little. But once you rough it up, now it’s not clean enough…

It will never stop, and all you do lose motivation and excitement over time, while the returns on your effort get smaller and smaller.

In the biographic drama, Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher, there’s a powerful scene where Steve Jobs is reviewing the first Macintosh computer, and he goes directly from complimenting how good it is into demanding they make it more perfect. The moral impact on the team is obvious, and every viewer knows how that would feel to have it happen to them.

Don’t get me wrong, Steve Jobs was a brilliant visionary, but his constant drive for perfection had a toll on his life, those around him, and his business. He was eventually fired from Apple for this.

Perfection is an idea, but not something that exists in reality. No matter how close you get to it, perfection will always dictate that there’s more to do.

That’s why shooting for excellence is better. Many things are excellent without being perfect. Can you name a perfect movie? Probably not, but I bet you can name a lot of excellent movies.

Find the excellence in your work, and strive for that. It’s enough.

Imperfect Action Is OK

Done is better than perfect — Scott Allen

We put too much importance on the idea of things needing to be perfect.

Your writing needs to be perfect, or nobody will read it. Your product needs to be perfect, or nobody will buy it. Your space needs to be perfect, or your life is a mess.

But none of this is true. We live lives of imperfection. Look around the space you’re in right now — how many imperfect things are there? The world is surviving despite all of those imperfections.

People will read imperfect works. They’ll buy imperfect products. They don’t fall apart with imperfect environments.

This is why being done with something imperfect is better than being perfect. It frees you up to do more things.

I finished my short story; I put it out there for others to read. It’s done.

Would I have anything to be proud of or learn from if I kept spinning on it in solitude, never calling it done and ready for feedback until it was perfect? Probably not.

Does it have flaws? Yes. Will I learn from those flaws? Yes. Am I freed up to move on to the next imperfect story I want to write, and grow as a writer? Hell yes!

Things will never be perfect, but they can be ‘done.’ And being done with something is always going to be worth more to you in the long run — you can focus on the next step needed to move forward instead.

Perfection Is an Excuse for Not Finishing

In business, perfection is the enemy of profitability — Mark Cuban

I love this quote because it’s so simple in what it’s saying. If you’re striving for perfection, you’ll never be finished, and you’re never going to have a product.

This quote is from a business perspective, but it applies to life in general. If you’re trying to be perfect with anything, that means you’re making excuses to not be finished. You’ve told yourself there’s more to do, and therefore you don’t have a product — something you or others can enjoy.

Take my short story example, again. I could still be editing it right now if I let myself, but then I wouldn’t have a published story. By letting go of perfection, I now have a product to earn some profitability in the form of reads, feedback, and maybe even real money.

This viewpoint isn’t a justification to make crap work; it just means there’s a point where it’s good enough for ‘sale.’ If you’ve done your edit or polish pass, you’re done. It’s ready for consumption, and more importantly, it’s ready for feedback so you can learn how to do better on your next steps.

Perfection doesn’t exist. And even if it did, you wouldn’t find it by chasing it, because you aren’t perfect. Your own views and feelings will always influence your work, and there will always be reasons to convince yourself to do more.

Perfection is a trap that keeps you from finishing things. Let go, and take those imperfect steps. You’ll get more done, learn more in the process, and you’ll feel better about your results in the long run as you grow to be better at what you do.