Good enough
Read time: 9 minutes
Will you ever know when you are done?
Will it ever be finished?
If you never tell yourself it’s good enough, will you ever reach the finish line?
We admire perfectionists, yet how many perfectionists have never released their work during their lifetime for fear of it not being good enough?
How many books, how many songs, how many great stories have never been told because individuals have not had the power to accept it shall never be perfect and choose to stop and accept that their work is enough.
The wrongdoing of perfectionism
By staying put on one project, ruminating every single detail to an imagined perfection may simply be detrimental to your progress.
I truly wish you go out there and put great things in the world, but you need to know when to stop and realize you have reached the finish line, because otherwise there will never be a finish line.
If a writer waited and kept on working on his masterpiece, he may never feel like he has achieved his goal of putting perfection out into the world.
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what’s next.” – Steve Jobs
Perfectionism is not productive
The curve of progress starts giving diminishing results the closer you get to 95% done.
You shouldn’t wait to reach that point.
The more you put your work into the world, the more you choose to say “it’s finished”, the more you progress in your craft.
Most of the things you learn are not in perfecting the placement of every coma, exercising to death that one line, drawing that one little detail in the painting for years on end.
The best products are not the best products.
The best products are those that are shipped.
If manufacturers would not release their products from fear of their products not being perfect, the would probably miss on an entire generation.
The same way: If you wait and wait before doing it, you risk taking your ideas to the grave with you, instead of releasing them out into the world.
Perfectionism stems from the idea that if we refrain ourselves from trying, we might just do it right the first time, we might just not fail.
The truth is you will fail… and you actually ought to fail.
Perfectionism is the enemy of progress, not it’s best friend.
Perfectionism is a disease
Trying to be perfect at all things is not a blessing, but rather a curse.
Aiming for perfection means being fearful of not doing it just right in the first run, it means being fearful of failing.
In your life if you never set a limit, if you never impose on yourself a finish line, you will never actually be “there”.
Just saying “I want to be better” imposes no upper or lower limit.
It means it will never be finished.
It means you will always be running, never reaching any finish line.
“Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people.
It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.
I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die.
The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.”
― Anne Lamott, (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)
I can tell you it’s a much easier to avoid doing, to take the path of least resistance and refuse the responsibility of putting it onto yourself.
How I fight perfectionism in my own life
This blog is my way of doing away with the forces of avoidance.
I force myself to only allow a maximum of 7 days while writing on a single blog post.
It matters not how unpolished one single blog is.
It does not matter how big of a flop I put into the world.
It only matters that I do it.
It only matters that I do ship it.
It matters only that I progress, that my portofolio of writings has 1 more blog added to it every single week.
The real value is not from writing a perfect blog, but rather from just writing.
The value comes from putting a good enough thing into the world, not from putting the perfect thing into the world.
How you can fight perfectionism
Start by FAILING.
SERIOUSLY!
When you are writing a new book and you are afraid of the very first page, don’t wait for the perfect phrase to start it with.
JUST WRITE BADLY!
When you want to train on an instrument, don’t wait for the perfect song and the perfect note.
JUST USE YOUR INSTRUMENT!
When you are creating a drawing, don’t wait for the inspiration needed for the ‘perfect’ brush stroke.
JUST USE THE DAMN BRUSH!
The conscious decision to fail in the very first steps is a freeing one.
You can personally see that nothing bad really happened and in the process you will get more acquainted with your craft.
Failing is good
Failuare really is a good thing.
It means you were not perfect.
It means that because you were not perfect, you got ever so slightly closer to perfection.
It doesn’t mean you will ever ‘achieve perfection’.
It means that you learned something that will make your craft better for the next time you do it.
Failing is your friend and should be treated as such.
Failuare is only a bad thing if you think it’s a bad thing.
You decide your attitude on the matter.
“I never lose. I either win or learn.” ― Nelson Mandela
Striving beyond perfection
The goal is never to be absolutely perfect.
The idea is never to hit an upper cealling of “This is the highest I can go”.
There is no “perfection” in the real world.
As hard it is to accept, there is no perfection and NO ONE can ever be perfect.
Instead what we can do is apply Kaizen to our lives, improve each day just a little bit beyond how good we were yesterday.
What we can do is be just a tiny better and that little bit of improvement, compounded over days, months, decades of work will seem to look like perfection, yet it will be beyond what we conceive as perfection.
It won’t be perfection.
It will be much more.
Our idealized self, our perfect self which we imagined before even starting will look like a small spec of dust compared to the life we have put into the world with our time and blood.
Thinking there is an upper ceiling is a really limiting thought.
Thinking about perfection is a limiting idea.
Focus instead on improvement.
Small and steady, day by day and before we know it, perfection will not only be attainable, we will have surpassed it.
Remember:
1. Focus on today’s improvement
2. Don’t think in terms of perfection
And most importantly:
3. Create bad stuff! JUST CREATE!
As you may have expected, I will leave you with a TED talk: