The Peril of Perfection

Perfection is a wonderful - albeit, impossibly elusive - concept. It is beautiful in movies and story books, but it just doesn’t show up in real life. In fact, perfection is a real problem, because Perfect is often the enemy of Done.

Some don’t care about perfection at all and have no drive or ambition to improve and progress. I have nothing for those people. But for the few of us that strive to make a positive impact during our short lives and seek to continually improve our value to others, perfection can be quite dangerous. Now, don’t misunderstand me, pursuing excellence is a noble and admirable endeavor. But excellence is different from perfection and too many of us neglect to deliver Excellence because we are waiting for Perfect.

The determined ambitious among us often suffer from POTA, Paralysis of the Analysis. We want to continue to tweak and adjust whatever we are working on to just make it a little bit more. Unfortunately this might prevent us from ever “shipping” our offering at all. Whether it’s a paper that could be just a little more articulate, a song that could sound a little sweeter, a painting that could be just a little more vibrant, a speech that could be a little more inspiring, a product that could be just a little cheaper or a presentation that could be a little more memorable, never sacrifice finished for flawless. The latter doesn’t exist and your creation may not either if you aren’t careful.

Excellence achieved is far more valuable than the theory of perfection. Deliver excellence and leave the pursuit of perfection to those who perfect ideas, but produce nothing.

Comments

Toxic Humility

We have all seen false humility: the guy who tries to hide his arrogance with feigned modesty. It’s usually pretty obvious and always obnoxious. But there is also another variation of false humility out there: toxic humility. This is often displayed in self-deprecating talk and a lack of self-confidence, belittling or undermining one’s own talents and abilities. The danger in this kind of behavior is twofold: it is too often accepted as true humility and like a virus, it spreads doubt and disbelief. To clarify, it is not that the bearer of this toxic humility isn’t honest about his view of himself. That is the very issue: he absolutely believes he has little value or utility. He thinks downplaying his own worth is humility but I disagree. CS Lewis said it best when he wrote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less.” His point being, true humility is not an ever-present raincloud of self-doubt that follows you around. It’s a focus on...

Flower Among Thorns

About six or seven years ago, my wife was around three months pregnant as we eagerly anticipated the birth of another child. One night, as I lay sleeping, I had a dream that our baby was born. It was a beautiful little girl with thin, wispy hair and large, bright eyes punctuating her beautiful face. I held her proudly in my arms and stared down at this precious little creation. I carefully handed her off to her older brother, who was just a toddler himself, as he sat on the coach, arms outstretched, anxiously awaiting the chance to hold his baby sister. I helped him prop up a pillow underneath his little arms to help support my daughter and then stepped back to take in the amazing sight as he gazed down at her with both pride and amazement in his eyes. As I stood there watching them, the dream quickly faded. When I woke up, my eyes met the tearful glance of my wife. “I’m bleeding,” she said as she fought back the emotions, “I think I am miscarrying.” Those words sunk deeply i...

The Art of Intentionality

“Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make you.” – Richie Norton I am not even sure who Richie Norton is, but I love that quote! I imagine a ship drifting out to sea, pushed around by the wind and the waves. No course of direction, yet the captain is frustrated when the ship ends up dashed against the rocks, trapped on a sandbar or marooned on an inhospitable island. It is easy to complain when life takes us where we do not want to go. But who is really to blame if we have never set our sails to align us along an appropriate course? Do we blame the waves, wind and the weather? Or should we blame the captain of the ship? It is our life and our ship. We must set our sails with intentionality and determined choices. Otherwise, we are doomed to aimlessly drift along according to the choices and decisions of others.

Mindset Matters

Search This Blog