Striving for excellence motivates you; living for perfection is demoralizing ~ Harriet Braiker
When I was young, I was branded with the word perfectionist. I thought it was a compliment. Little did I know it wasn’t. In fact, being a perfectionist is stressful and maddening and can lead to angry and self-destructive behaviors.
No one can be perfect. And no one should want to be. The nonsense we do, the mistakes we make, and the fact that we don’t know everything is what life is all about. Learn, grow and have fun in the process.
Perfectionism at its core is really the fear of failure and the fear of rejection. Making a mistake is not the same as failure. People don’t reject you for a mistake. The root of all failure is simply being overcome by fear.
I have learned to turn my mistakes into funny stories that are really entertaining. When people laugh and have fun, they certainly don’t think “she’s a loser.”
Striving for excellence in everything you do is healthy and keeps you passionate and motivated. It adds to your satisfaction and feelings of accomplishment. In other words, you are not doing it for the approval of others. But in striving to be perfect, it comes down to what others think.
When you sit down to work on something, decide why you are doing it, who you are doing it for, and how you will feel when you have made the final product. After analyzing your answers, you will know what mindset you are in.
If excellence is your primary desire, you will not be motivated if someone appreciates what you are doing. It is not for someone else to notice, but for your own sense of achievement and growth. This is liberating!
When writing this article, it started out slow and boring. I kept writing and editing. I knew I wasn’t going to publish an article that was terrible, but I also knew that it wouldn’t be perfect and maybe not even great. But it had a purpose for me and so I proceeded to post it.
You will never really get anything off the ground if you think it has to be perfect. Sometimes you will fall short and sometimes you will really hit the mark. But it is the pursuit of excellence that brings success and happiness.
Perfect or excellent? Your choice. Having been on both sides, I can say that you will be much happier when you stop worrying so much about what other people think and start to value your own self-worth.