Is perfection overrated?

Yes it is. Perfection in some things is essential. You wouldn’t want a heart surgeon who said ‘that’ll do’, but for most of us, perfection is overrated and, more to the point can actually stop us in our tracks. Perfection, if you like, can stop us being the most perfect version of ourselves. In my view, perfection is overrated.

I write a lot of copy. Not just for blogs and social media, but for the press too. I take finding a typo really badly. I hate typos. They make me disproportionately angry. Because I like my work to be ‘perfect’ – or as perfect as it can be. But what happens when you quest for perfection stops you doing things? In this case, what if it stopped me ever posting and update on Facebook? Or Twitter? Or sending out a press release because I was worried about there being a typo I’d missed? I wouldn’t be popular with my clients for starters. With my country and equestrian PR and marketing clients, I’d get emails/calls asking me what I was playing at, and why I hadn’t done x, y or z. And saying I was worried there might be a typo is a pretty poor excuse, isn’t it?

Obviously that was a specific and extreme example, but you can see where I’m coming from. No one is perfect. That’s the truth of it. It’s important to try your best and get things as good as you can in a timely fashion (I’m not encouraging sloppy work and poor attitudes – far from it!), but there’s a point when you have to launch/send/do and trust that you’d done the best you can, so you can move onto the next thing. Perfection can be paralysing. Do, review, redo – don’t get stuck on the planning before the ‘do’ and never do anything. Perfection is overrated. Hard work, good attitudes and tons or effort are what you should be focussing on, along with the best outcome you can perfect in a timely fashion. Perfection isn’t on this list. For very good reason.