TURN YOUR HOPELESS PURSUIT OF PERFECTION INTO A RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF BETTER

I’m a perfectionist. Or at least I thought I was.

Until I realised, I was a perfectionist when it suited me. A bit like those football supporters that come out the woodwork when the team they used to support start doing well again.

I noticed that I wasn’t a perfectionist when it didn’t matter to me. Clothes laying on the floor… didn’t bother me. Dirty car… didn’t bother me.

I wasn’t a purist when it came to perfection. A true perfectionist would need perfection in any circumstance.

But if university work needed to be completed for example, suddenly it had to be perfect before I submitted it. Or if I needed to do something else that I didn’t want to do, I would spend more time on the thing I wanted to do and make sure that was perfect before I moved onto it.

With my training, I was similar. I felt like I had to write myself the perfect program before I could start it. Or I just needed to get rid of a niggle before I really got stuck into training. Or even worse, I would put off doing something all together if I didn’t think I was going to be good at it straight away. That’s why hybrid-style training and running has delivered so much value to me personally and have seen it do the same for hundreds of people. Getting better at things you usually avoid is one of the most rewarding feelings you can have.

So I started to wonder why that was, when I’ve always considered myself a perfectionist.

A lot of the time, it was procrastination through perfectionism…

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

It means that often I would use my so-called perfectionism to procrastinate.

If I had an assignment to complete at university, in my head I needed the very first sentence of that assignment to be absolutely perfect before I could move on and do the rest of it.

Because I cared about my work, I felt it needed to be perfect. Which is a great attitude to have.

However, it caused me to procrastinate. I couldn’t get the rest of my work done until the first sentence was exactly how I wanted it. Then the first paragraph had to be perfect, and so on.

I feared my work not being perfect, and it stopped me from actually getting the work done. Which now I look at it, is utterly ridiculous. Because the more I wanted it to be perfect, the less time I had to make it perfect.

And when you’re at university, no piece of work is perfect. You’re an undergraduate, you’re learning, you’re not the finished product. I don’t know anyone who has ever got 100% on their coursework.

So for me to need it to be perfect is unreasonable, and detrimental to creating great work.

HOW TO CHANNEL YOUR INNER PERFECTIONIST TO MAKE YOURSELF MORE PRODUCTIVE

If you also have an inner perfectionist, it’s by no means a bad thing. I’d sooner have a drive for perfection than just accept mediocrity.

The only issue, chasing perfection is hopeless. You will be chasing it forever, meaning the procrastination will continue.

But if perfection isn’t possible, we need to know 2 things.

- How can we just “switch off” our perfectionism?

- And how good is good enough?

Firstly, we need to redefine our expectations. We can strive for perfection if we accept that perfection is unattainable.

Sounds counterintuitive but stay with me. I know you will think “well what’s the point in aiming for something that’s not possible?”.

Because if you have that inner perfectionism that a lot of people would love to have, then why waste it? It’s something that drives you forward, if we can just harness it to avoid procrastination, then it can be an incredible quality.

All the reading I have done on perfectionism, it kept coming back to people saying that it’s associate with mental illnesses such as ADHD, OCD, can lead to depression, anxiety etc.

But isn’t everything nowadays?! Screw that, perfectionism is a gift. I’d sooner work with someone who really wants to put their best foot forward with everything they do than people that are happy with mediocrity.

Therefore, striving for perfection can allow us to do a task or live life with great pride in what we do, without the expectation of it ever being “perfect”.

Needing it to be perfect is what is causing the procrastination, because we fear that it won’t meet our own expectations, or that of others.

But striving for it is going to ensure we keep the quality in what we do, without causing us to procrastinate.

Then for the second part... how good is good enough?

That comes down to the effort and quality of work you put in.

If we take a work task as an example. If you dedicate the time it requires to do the task properly, and you put the effort it requires during that time, then what more can you do?

You will know whether you have done that. If you have, then chances are you either didn’t have the skill or resources required to do it. In that case, you learn and you know what you need to do to improve, or what you need to be more effective.

But if you ACT from the off, then I guarantee the task will be done to a much higher level than if you’re waiting for it to be perfect.

“I just need this information, then I can start”.

“I’ll do it when I can dedicate a whole day to it”.

“I don’t want my boss to think it’s not good enough”.

“I just need to lose a bit of weight before I join a gym”.

Any of this sound familiar? If you use any of these when you’re supposed to be working on something or want to do something, then you’re shooting yourself in the foot by procrastinating and not ACTING.

Imperfect action is the key. Do the work needed, if it’s not good enough you can improve on it as you go. But it’s much easier to see what needs improving when you’ve actually started.

That’s what I mean by being on the RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF BETTER. Just work on getting better each day, and you will be far closer to perfection than you will ever be by procrastinating through perfectionism.

The problem with perfection is it can feel so far away, especially when you’re just getting started on something. Whereas “better” is only one action away.

Never try and dampen your desire for perfection. It’s one of the greatest qualities you can have, as long as you change what perfection means to you.

Strive for perfection but accept that getting better is good enough and put your energy into that.

That’s why the relentless pursuit of better is so powerful.