Having a perfectionist mindset can sometimes be your own undoing, and have you falter in a feedback loop where you self-criticize to an extent that you don’t actually do anything, and just spiral down, until you eventually give up!
When I say a perfectionist mindset, in no way, do I mean that anything I do is perfect — one of the bitter realities of having a perfectionist mindset — you don’t end up doing too much. It’s much more to say that sometimes you take up an endeavor, you keep working on it, and as you continue to work, you analyze and tend to criticize your own work.
If I take an example of writing an article — once you write the first draft, proceeding with a second draft or proofreading your work a few times makes sense, but at times you end up in a pitfall where you over analyze your work, making sure that every sentence is perfect, or sometimes you don’t even start writing that first draft, because you can’t think of a perfect line to begin with.
I was watching an interview from Randy Blythe, the vocalist of the band “Lamb of God”, who has also authored many books. He was discussing how one of his peers in the music industry was also thinking of writing a book, but didn’t know where to start, to which Blythe responded “Just write”. It doesn’t matter whether you have that perfect line or not, or if you think that you’re unable to express yourself clearly on paper, it’s good to just start and write, and leave out all that other stuff for later.
There’s a vlog from a Canadian photographer, Peter McKinnon, where he talks about a time he was having a chat with his sister about his work, and she commented “Peter, done is better than perfect”, which gives the title to this article (sorry for stealing it, Peter). But he goes on to talk about how we are our very own worst critique, and how we can go crazy in our heads trying to perfect the smallest of things, rather than looking at the big picture.
That doesn’t mean we should not work towards making our work better, and improving, but it’s much more fruitful to write an article, proofread it a few times and be done with it, than obsessing over the littlest details, and not ever completing it.
Most of the time, what we think is perfect can still be imperfect to others, and if you think hard enough, do we even know what “perfect” means? As humans, we have numerous imperfections which make us who we are and give us our unique personality, otherwise we’re as good as emotionless robots. It’s actually our flaws, imperfections, quirks that make us form social connections, and have people empathize with us.
And maybe, just maybe, we don’t need to strive for perfection, but enjoy life being imperfect!
Good one