Jeff Wang Blog

Perfectionism kills projects

Why?

Because “perfect” doesn’t exist.

It’s unachievable, which is why we use the term as a rhetoric to emphasize excellence and use it as a flattering comment.

But in reality, perfectionism is this flawed philosophy of never getting anything done.

When you hold yourself to impossible standards of “perfect”, every project you embark on will result in either 1) unsatisfactory results, which if you read my last post, would be remarkably worse than just mediocre, or 2) you never finish the project because you cannot achieve the desired results.

Writers understand this very well. So do artists. In fact, many people in the arts field will understand this, because of the innate subjective manner of the projects we often involve ourselves in, you can never truly be “done” because there is always more you can do. But the important part is also understanding that achieving excellence and achieving (false) perfection, are two different and separate things.

You can be excellent, beyond satisfied, without being “perfect”…

The important thing is finishing the project. It feels great to complete every blog post on a daily basis. I know that none of my writings is perfect, which was a thought that held me back for nearly 2 years when I first wanted to start writing. Now here I am, finished 30 days of excellence.

Give yourself the gift of done.