Behaviors That Harm Your Success Series- Perfection Is the Enemy of Success
Perfection Is the Enemy of Success
Success is a rollercoaster filled with hills and dips. You sit in the front car, put on your safety belt, and let the brake release send you down the track. The first hill is always the one full of anticipation. It’s the highest one and propels you toward the rest of the ride, where you will encounter super-fast speeds mixed with some slow spots. Notice that while it was fun, it was less than perfect. The cars shook your bones, and you may have felt like you had whiplash. But you had fun! Success does that too. Its twists and turns, hills and valleys, leave you breathless and ready for more unless you let perfectionism stall you at the gate.
How Perfection Stalls Your Success Journey
The best way to stop success in its tracks is to be hung up on perfection. Here is how it affects your journey and what you can do about it:
You fail to get things done. You find yourself fretting over the perfect business plan instead of implementing the plan. Why? Because you feel you must account for every eventuality. You do not have a crystal ball and cannot tell the future. It’s OK to accept ‘good enough’ and get moving. You can tweak along the way.
You focus on the product, not the process. Too much emphasis on the final product leaves you trapped. All of your energies will be expended on the end result while you miss out on the beauty of the process to get there. Developing good habits will propel you to complete everything that needs to be completed. You will also learn and grow so that you can adjust and make the final result even better than you initially imagined.
You allow for fluid deadlines. Setting deadlines helps to get things done. Moving your deadlines will enable you to postpone your success. You’ll find that you allow perfectionism to creep in almost every time you postpone a deadline.
You lose momentum. Perfectionism slows your speed out of the gate. If you delay working on your goals, you may become complacent about reaching them. The result is delayed (or non-existent) success. Move fast, keep your enthusiasm, and stay on course.
Don’t get caught on the kiddie coaster called perfectionism. Jump into the front car of your success coaster, and keep your hands up for the thrill of a lifetime.