As someone who long suffered with Perfectionism I have come to realize the ultimate cost and more importantly that I wasn’t willing to pay it anymore. This was probably one of the things that first got me interested in psychology.
The Cost of Perfectionism
An overemphasis on perfection can lead to enormous stress (think angry flare-ups or spontaneous tears). At best, it can make you hesitate to immerse yourself in a new project. At worst, this pattern can lead to you abandoning your creative pursuits because of the toll they take on you physically, mentally, and emotionally. (1344) - From Manage Your Day-to-Day
The amount of half baked projects should be a clue. And sometimes the emotional cost wasn’t even necessary. Some of my most popular writings have come from something I just “chucked over the fence.” Not out of laziness but out of trying to get things completed.
Ironically, perfectionism can also inhibit your ability to reach your full potential. If you refuse to put yourself in a situation where you might give an imperfect performance, you’ll prevent yourself from receiving the proper feedback, input, and direction necessary for additional growth. (1346) - From Manage Your Day-to-Day
You can be your own worst critic but we are often terrible at Self Reflection. Our perception of our flaws may never be noticed, but worse would be our blindness to things we should actually be working on.
It’s Just Procrastination in Disguise
Perfectionism is procrastination masquerading as quality-control.- From Tweets From Chris Williamson
There are some things you hear that shake your reality. This was one of them for me. Because I knew that it was true.
The Alternative: Progress Over Perfection
Think progress, not perfection.- From The Obstacle Is the Way
Another Facebookism was “Ship and Iterate.” There was also “Perfectionism is the Enemy of Progress” which was to say that making progress was more important.
If you want to master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection. You don’t need to map out every feature of a new habit. You just need to practice it. This is the first takeaway of the 3rd Law: you just need to get your reps in.- From Atomic Habits
This begins to resonate even more so for habits. Just because you don’t lose all the weight after 1 week of workouts, doesn’t mean you aren’t going to get there. Focusing on the outcome metric of a long term goal can be demoralizing if the scale is too long. This is important when goal setting because you want to reinforce building good habits that reinforce the long term goal.