Perfection…..doesn’t exist


Do you often procrastinate things because you think it is not the right time or situation? You are not in the right mindset to do that? Or not sure if it’s the right thing to do or will bring the right outcome? Thinking that, you feel stuck in one point and not progressing in any direction? Are you a writer staring towards a blank screen knowing not what to type, a painter lost in the plain canvas thinking where to draw the first line, a professional not sure about making a new career move or a business man with an invention on the back burner but knowing not where to start from? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you are one of the many people suffering of ‘Perfection Paralysis’.

If we will use perfection as a measurement tool to determine our success and failure, we can never achieve our goals and will always fail; since we can NEVER be perfect. In one form or another, we all strive for perfection. We all want the right time and right situation to do the right thing. But the reality is that perfection doesn’t exist. Even then we look for it. Let's be honest, no matter how hard you try, your article will have a grammar error, someone will tell you and you will fix it; you will accidentally send a communication to a list you didn't intend to and; yes, your newsletter will have a broken hyperlink. But it’s not the end of the world.

Don't get me wrong, I am not asking you not to go for or do the best possible thing. The world is for doers. But there is a difference between ‘being perfect’ and ‘doing the best possible thing’. We need to realise that every situation we’re in is ideal, the one most right for us. It was meant to be so. Whenever you blame yourself of not coming up to the perfection criteria, just change your mindset and think that it was the best possible thing you could do in that situation and with that little information. In this way, we’ll never really fail because we’ll know everything is ideal, just in the right place for us.

We’re never stuck. It’s only that sometimes we pause at places temporary, just to learn something that needed to be learnt in order to move ahead in the right direction. When we use perfection as a yardstick to determine our success, we put boundaries to our selves. We miss on so many opportunities that were not perfect but just right for us and meant for us. Come out of this perfection paralysis and don’t let go of these opportunities!

Bushra Naz
28 September 2009

Published in The Daily Mail on 30 September 2009 http://dailymailnews.com/0909/30/Editorial_Column/DMArticle.php#2

No comments: