Is Perfection Your Goal?

“The idea of perfect closes your mind to new standards. When you drive hard toward one ideal, you miss opportunities and paths, not to mention hurting your confidence. Believe in your potential and then go out and explore it; don’t limit it.” John Eliot, Ph.D., Reverse Psychology for Success

Last week I wrote about how hearing of another’s success can be motivating or demoralizing, depending on how we look at it. But that doesn’t just happen when we compare ourselves to another person; it could be the expectations we have of ourselves that cause the same discouragement.

Just today I two conversations along this line. The first was with a business colleague who was feeling disheartened over her inability to do it all. She was exhausted caring for her business, home, family, and self. I resonated with her statements, having been there myself many times. The other was with a close friend who told me she sometimes wonders if she is the only one who struggles with certain issues. She acknowledged that my recently admitting my own difficulties along the same lines encouraged her – she realized that she was not alone!

I do believe in goals and know the statistics about how much more people who have written goals achieve compared to those who don’t. But let’s not get caught with perfection as our goal. We do not have to do it all, have it all, or be it all. What if we let ourselves just be for a while, and see what comes. If doing so for a whole day is unrealistic, how about an hour? Let us do only what is truly ours to do and free ourselves to explore the opportunities and paths that come when we let go of perfection.