Perfection Is An Illusion — Striving For It Destroys Your Creativity

“Give me an hour more. I want to make it a perfect sales copy which could take another 45–50 minutes.”

1 hour passed…2 hours…3 hours…passed.

He neither replied on Whatsapp nor sent the sales pitch copy timely.

Result?

Instead of getting an appreciation for drafting a superb sales copy, the client scolded him for breaching the deadlines by a huge margin.

The client was naturally upset and questioned the writer’s commitment and integrity.

Did the writer have wrong intentions? Not really. He wanted to send the best possible content which could fetch the desired results.

However, in an effort to develop a perfect (near-perfect) document, he actually disappointed the client.

Doesn’t it happen with all of us?

We are so engrossed in achieving the perfection that we don’t either start or finish a task.

• “I want to publish this piece once it becomes as perfect as XYZ’s content.”
• “I want to start making videos but I’m waiting for the perfect environment and sunlight.”
• “I want to propose that girl when the perfect moment arrives.”

We keep deferring things, tasks, moments while waiting for perfection, but it never arrives.

Why?

Nothing called as perfection exists in the real world — it is an illusion which can’t be attained ever.

You can experience a good-enough moment or at best an excellent moment. But, a perfect or even near-perfect won’t every knock on your doors.

Perfectionism takes the right moment of celebration away

When you attempt to achieve perfection, you don’t settle for anything less than it. However, in the process to attain your goals, you overlook the small achievements and success which come your way.

You ignore celebrating those achievements because you accumulate them for future grand celebrations, once the perfect situation is accomplished.

But, it doesn’t happen ever. That perfect moment keeps sliding away and with it, those tiny achievements also diminish somewhere in the race.

What should you instead do?

Consistency and constant improvement — You should work on yourself every single day.

When you focus on process and not end result (perfect result), you do hard work to achieve the desired goals (which might be good enough for you).

Also, when you want to improve yourself irrespective of the results, you motivate yourself by celebrating the achievements and tiny successes as they come along.

After celebrating it, you forget the past and again accumulate all your energies to invest in the present and work towards attaining the goals.

Can Gold be 24 carat pure? No, right? Then, how can you expect the individuals to be perfect? Think before you run behind perfection next time.