Is Perfection Hampering Your Success?

Recently, a coaching client told me he realized that his emphasis on perfection sometimes slowed him down and limited his ability to accomplish as much as he wanted.   We both agreed that, while it’s important that we deliver as highly professional an image and service as possible, if we allow ourselves to hesitate, seeking just that one perfect phrase for that unique listing presentation, or feeling disappointed that we couldn’t come up with it, we probably will lower our chances of actually getting that listing!

Years ago, when I was in grad school, a fellow writer told me a story about an undergrad class she’d taken on writing short stories, where the question of perfection was a focus.   The professor had divided the class in half, and told one group that they were to write a single story over the course of the semester.  Each excellent story would get an A, and all the rest C’s.  The other half of the class was told that if they simply wrote three hundred pages of stories (probably twenty to thirty stories!) they would get an A, and for each twenty-five pages fewer, the grade would be reduced by one letter.

The first group of writers spent weeks in planning and making notes, developing ideas and characters, and researching details for a fascinating setting, until they each felt they had the perfect story ready to be written.  Of course, once they started to write, they found the execution of their ideas a lot tougher than expected.  And since they felt every sentence had to be perfect, they moved at a snail’s pace.  Bottom line, no one came close to writing an excellent story and no one got an A.

The second group, on the other hand, simply wrote stories.  And wrote and wrote more stories.  Of course, as they wrote, their practice let them improve not only their craft but also their creativity, and nearly every student produced an excellent story or two out of their hundreds of pages, and most earned A’s.

So, as someone once said, it’s usually best to just get out there and do it, and the results will surely follow.

David M. Hassler

Director of Coaching