Dali: Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.
This is a tongue in cheek quote to me. Mostly we have no fear OF perfection, but rather we fear that we are not perfect, or good enough. To be perfect is highly in vogue, and social media is overflowing with a perfectly edited reality which says nada about how people really are. Then the last part of the quote enters the stage and tells us no need to worry. Take a deep breath and lower your shoulders again.
As an entrepreneur, I am very familiar with the diagnosis Perfection Paralysis. However, I find the condition frequently in people from any profession and also in their private lives. It is about how we will not do, say or let anything out into the world, until it is “perfect”.
To have ONE thing be perfect, nearly always means that something else has to be perfect FIRST, and for that to be perfect something else has to be fixed – first. This argument just goes on and on creating a vicious circle where you don’t know where to begin. Result: Overwhelm and procrastination. Here I speak from my personal experience, but you may recognize the pattern:
To be able to issue a newsletter I first need to have a decent website to send people to. For this website to be finished and “perfect”, I have to have new photos (of myself – OUCH!!) taken and have the content updated. To have the content updated I need to rewrite the texts and make new illustrations. The project starts looking more and more like a downward spiral, where I speak bad words to myself, loud and frequently. This contaminates my NOW.
My brave everyday goal is to ignore this endless chain of perfectionism and take action and implement where I can. I will not pretend to make this sound easy. It isn’t.
Give them what you’ve got. The difference between “shipping” and not, is like the difference between 0 and 1.
Perfectionism is a very effective form of procrastinating. We’d rather not do it right now. “It’s cold out there”. Nothing is fun outside the comfort zone. But everything you do today was once there. When I get mental just by the thought of doing something, there is great comfort in Dali. Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.
