Why the Perfectionist Always Loses in Life!

Words I like: “Perfectionist” sounds great in a job interview or during conversations. However, it’s just the socially acceptable term for “I am insecure”. People are afraid of judgment, so they wait until their work is “perfect” so that they won’t be judged poorly.

Imagine that you had to take a long drive to see your family.

If you’re in the USA, you might have just survived that.

But when you went there, you just got in your car and drove, right? You didn’t wait around until you were 100% that all traffic lights would be green and there aren’t any traffic jams. That wouldn’t make sense. You just turned on the engine, drove and dealt with obstacles as they came along.

In other words:

You got started instead of waiting for perfect conditions!

In life however, most people DO wait for the “perfect” conditions.

This is a huge mistake for 3 reasons:

1. Conditions will never be perfect! And before you know it, you’ve wasted years of your life waiting for a moment that never came… Are you okay with facing that kind of regret on your dead bed?

2. In the meanwhile, you could write the perfect 1862-step plan. However, when you finally get started, you’ll find that things fall apart at step 2 or 3 (sometimes even step 1). Such a damn shame of all that time and energy…

3. But the biggest waste is the experience you didn’t get. Getting good at anything requires a TON of time and energy. Every bit of procrastination is like stealing away your own potential and skills!

The perfectionist always loses because they never master their craft!

The way to achieve excellence at anything is this:

Get started quick and dirty.
Make tons of mistakes.
Learn from said mistakes.
Get stuck at some points.
Find answers to get ahead.
Make some progress.
Encounter new roadblock.
Figure a way around it.

Most people (my former self included) vastly underestimate the amount of repetitions and practice it takes to get good at anything! However much effort you think is required, it’s most likely 10x, 20x or even 100x as much!

Do your best, but don’t let your insecurities hold you back.

Repetition is the key to excellence, execute FAST & iterate!

Action Step:

You do NOT need an elaborate plan!

All you need right now is to take the first (or next) step.

Ask yourself:

When it comes to achieving [insert goal here], what is something I can do right now that will increase my chances of achieving it?“

Whatever the answer is, count from 5 to 0.

When you get to 0, shift into gear. Go and take that action step!

Repeat any time you find yourself to be procrastinating.

Cheers,
Maikel

Ps. This email is a great example of this concept. If I wanted to, I could rewrite this email 41 times and make it a bit better with every iteration. But… I wouldn’t get anything else done because of it.

10 things done at 80% quality is getting you further than 1 thing done at 97%.