Let It Go

Some wise advice I was given many years ago.

One of the things I have realised through life is our penchant for perfectionism and it's a curse. There is no destination if we live on Perfection Drive - it is one large roundabout.

We strive to have everything perfect, and if it's not perfect it doesn't see the light of day. Our in trays are full - good intentions but they're full because nothing's quite perfect. We've got proposals and quotes, invoices and draft emails that have to be double checked and triple checked before letting them go, creating bottlenecks in our organisations. We have new ideas for business development but because they are not fully formed to perfection we continue with what we've always done. We fail to trust others because "no one can do it as good as me."

Some have got songs that are sitting in the drawer that are at 95% that never see the light of day. Artists - their paintings never see the light of day because they're not perfect.

Some things need to be given the 100% treatment. Workplace Health and Safety is one that has serious ramifications if we fall short of the mark but much of our output can be let go at less than perfect. The time it takes to perfect something compared to the value received by others doesn't necessarily correlate.

One of the things I've learnt over time is to continually produce, and if it's 80% or over in my estimation I let it go and I perfect along the way. Does that mean that we shouldn't strive for excellence? Not at all. Excellence is a great goal, perfectionism, as I said, is a curse.

So in your life, in your work, in your artistic endeavours, in the gifts that you've got to share with the world, 80% out the door is a whole lot better than 100% in the drawer.

And it's up to us to understand what needs to be at 100% and what can be released above 80%. It's different for everyone and different for every organisation.

Simply said...Let it go.