Don’t Be Perfect - Just Get It Done!

“The most dangerous way we sabotage ourselves is by waiting for the perfect moment to begin. Nothing works perfectly the first time, or the first fifty times. Everything has a learning curve. The beginning is just that – a beginning. Surrender your desire to do it flawlessly on the first try. It’s not possible. Learn to learn. Learn to fail. Learn to learn from failing. And begin today. Begin now. Stop waiting.” – Vironika Tugaleva

It’s the middle of the night and you can’t sleep. You keep going over your to-do list in your head, trying to plan out how you’re going to get everything done tomorrow. But no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to make any headway. You feel overwhelmed and stressed out, and you end up just lying in bed for hours on end. Sound familiar? If so, you’re not alone. A lot of us are perfectionists, and we often put too much pressure on ourselves to do everything perfectly. But guess what? It doesn’t have to be that way! You don’t have to be perfect – just get it done.

I’m intrigued by perfectionism.

On the other hand, it’s all about good quality – we want to do outstanding things. We want to provide our clients with fantastic outcomes. We want to give our all in any scenario. These are all appropriate objectives for business on paper.

Perfectionism may be the thing that prevents us from achieving our goals, and it’s a very widespread type of resistance or self-sabotage.

Here’s why you should ditch perfectionism, and what to do instead:

1. Perfectionism breeds anxiety and self-doubt.-The need for perfection often leads to anxiety and self-doubt, as you constantly worry about whether you’re doing things “right”. This can be extremely paralyzing and prevent you from taking action at all.

2. Perfectionism can lead to procrastination -If you’re never satisfied with your work, you may yourself procrastinating in an effort to make your work “perfect”. This can lead to a lot of wasted time and energy.

3. Perfectionism can be unhealthy-The need for perfection often leads to unreasonable standards and excessive self-criticism. This can lead to stress, anxiety, and even depression.

In my experience, when I’m trapped in perfectionism, it’s frequently hiding a fear of making a mistake.

“What if I make a mistake and they think badly of me?

“What if I let them down?”

“What if I’m not as smart/talented/cool as they believe?”

These are the sorts of worries that may produce shame and cause us to believe we aren’t good enough.

What can we do if we are someone who becomes caught up in perfectionism?

I don’t think it’s as simple as saying, “there is no such thing as perfect, so just do it,” or “the sooner you finish something, the better.” Those are true statements, but they aren’t particularly helpful when we’re afraid of making a mistake and letting someone down deep down inside.

What if we focused on improving our ability to make mistakes?

We all make mistakes – it’s inevitable.

The most important aspect of making a mistake is how we react to it.

• Do we accept responsibility for the mistake and attempt to repair it or make things right?
• Do we run away, hide, or try to pin the blame on someone or something else?

Perfectionism, in other words, does not have to be the objective if you learn to respond effectively and take responsibility for your errors. It no longer has to be the yardstick by which you decide whether or not you are doing a good job (and we all know that when we measure ourselves against perfection, we will never reach our full potential.)

Read : How to Manage Your Perfectionism

The objective, on the other hand, should be to determine whether you are someone who is prepared to accept responsibility for any shortcomings. It doesn’t matter if it’s unpleasant or distressing. The thing is that even though you want to flee and hide, you must persevere.

Strangely, as we take responsibility and improve our reaction to errors… perfectionism may no longer be so powerful over us. We understand that making mistakes will occur, and we are ready to accept responsibility and deal with it.

What can you do instead of perfectionism? Here are a few ideas:

1. Set realistic goals.

Don’t try to achieve the impossible; set achievable goals instead. This will help reduce the amount of stress and anxiety you feel, and increase your chances of actually accomplishing something.

2. Cut yourself some slack.

Nobody is perfect, so don’t try to be. Nobody’s work is perfect, so don’t expect yours to be. Remember that nobody else cares as much about your work as you do, and most of your classmates/coworkers/clients probably won’t notice any imperfections if they exist.

3. Learn from your mistakes.

You will make mistakes, it’s inevitable – whether through incompetence or bad luck. The key is to learn from those mistakes instead of dwelling on them. Rather than trying to avoid all mistakes entirely, focus on learning specific lessons from them so you can continue improving over time.

4. Seek out the opinions of others – but keep in mind their biases too!

Don’t expect others to tell you the truth 100% of the time, but do seek out their opinions and advice on occasion. It can be very helpful to get additional perspectives on your work. At the same time, remember that everybody else’s standards are different from yours, so don’t let them define what “good enough” means for you.

5. Remember that nobody cares as much about your work as you do.

Remember how much effort and attention to detail you put into your tasks? Well other people probably only put in a fraction of that effort when they look at your work – if they even bother looking at all! Once again, this will help reduce stress while increasing the chances of your work being accepted.

The perfect is the enemy of good. This means that when you’re in a situation where there are two or more alternatives, and one option will work better than all others but not as well as it could be if executed perfectly, choose the one that works best and move on to what else needs doing.

Here’s to making blunders! And being OK with it. 😉