“I Want It Perfect!” – How to Hinder Your Progress

“Perfect is the enemy of good.”

I’m not sure who said that. It’s been attributed to Voltaire. I first heard it on an episode of “Blue Bloods.”

What’s Wrong with Perfect?

It sets the bar so high that it is impossible to reach it. If it’s an unattainable goal, you’ll start making excuses for working toward it. You’ll procrastinate. You’ll drag your feet. You’ll think of other things that desperately need your attention right now. You need a snack, you need to use the bathroom, and you haven’t checked your email in a while.

It isn’t bad to be perfect. Or to have a perfect performance. Or to write a perfect blog post.

But if I wait for my posts to be perfect before I hit publish, I will never click publish. Never. My writing can always be improved.

I had a writing teacher in middle school who would never give a higher grade than 99. She told us from the beginning that she would not ever give any writing paper a Perfect 100. Why not? Because, she said, you can always improve.

Don’t Discourage Yourself.

Perfect is a discouraging goal. We need goals, we need to set the bar high – but not that high. If someone asked you to keep jumping until you touch the moon, would you bother? Of course not. You know you can’t do it. When your goal feels impossible, you don’t even start.

You may know people who seem like they have very low standards. Maybe their house is disastrously messy or they generally seem to be falling apart or letting things go. The problem might not be low standards, but unreasonable high standards. They want to fix the problem, but they’re not going to start until they can do it right. Meaning perfectly. Meaning – realistically – it will never get done. They can’t get started because their standard is so high that they sit back down before they start. The solution is to lower their standards.

Perfectionism can also lead to depression. When someone’s goals are so high and lofty that they can’t possibly be achieved, that can be more than just discouraging. It can lead to long-term unhappiness and dissatisfaction with life. It can affect their relationships and the way they treat others. (For more about that, check out this article.)

Practice Makes Perfect… or at least better!

You’ve heard the saying, “Practice makes perfect.” It might not make perfect, but it certainly makes better. “Perfect” – or even “better” – is rarely accomplished on the first try. Another inherent problem with perfectionism is that we need to practice before we can get better! Highly successful people generally had to try many times and endure multiple setbacks and failures before they eventually achieved success. If we expect success the first time around, we’re setting ourselves up for failure.

Steps to Take

So, if you’re a perfectionist, what can you do? How do you lower the standards enough that you can do something good instead of dreaming about perfect but doing nothing?

Set time goals.

Make an artificial deadline. Perfectionists love deadlines because they always have an excuse for their lack of perfection: They ran out of time. Set a timer. Work until the deadline. See how much you can get done in an hour. You’ll get a lot done without worrying about whether or not it was perfect – because you weren’t actually trying to finish.

Set bite-size goals.

Set small goals that don’t involve finishing the project. Instead of “clean the refrigerator,” try “Clean one shelf of the refrigerator.” Avoid setting overwhelming goals.

Set long-term goals.

Make a plan that includes realistic steps to be completed every day (or week). What do you want to accomplish? What’s your vision? When you have a clear vision of the prize, you will feel more motivated to work toward it. You’ll need a clear, detailed plan for this to work.

When my husband works on the roof, he uses a ladder to get there. He takes one step at a time until he gets there. If you want to reach the top, you need to do the same. You need individual steps that you can take one at a time. But if you can see where you’re going and you have a plan for how to get there, you’ll feel more motivated to put one foot in front of the other and make progress.

So, what are you waiting for? Put one foot in front of the other and get started! You can do this!