Perfection is rarely the goal and for the majority of us, it’s detrimental to reaching a better state.
Progress over perfection is a term I frequently bat around as hardworking people create change but lose excitement at the small imperfections, or the length of time it’s taken to get the result. For many, they hold this expectation that anything less than perfect first time isn’t worth celebrating. Quite frankly that’s a story that isn’t serving us and it’s bull.
For our entire childhood we were taught to practice our way to a better state. Reading, writing, catching a ball and learning to play an instrument (not sure the recorder skill is serving me now, but the others certainly are!). Then somewhere between teenage and adult-hood we gained a new story that only the best are good enough. That natural talent and perfection is where it’s at. It’s complete bull. Natural talent is incredibly rare and the reality is that immersion, self-awareness and communication are your foundations to learn anything. We need to learn a new story, of progress over perfection. For the few skills in life where perfection really is the target the story should involve progress on the way to perfection.
The fact that you consciously took action, navigated your way through risks, issues and stepped up to a better state is massive. Because if you look around you, you’ll notice the world has a lot of talkers, throwing dreams and ideas from the comfort of their couch or office chair. But they never actually do anything with those ideas. They never take step after step to realise the opportunities or solve the problem. They’re the dreamers of the world. The world needs doers, you need a doer mindset and the best chance you’ve got of adopting a doer mindset is to focus on progress over perfection or on the way to it.
Practice kindness and celebrate those successes no matter how small, how imperfect or how bumpy the journey was.
Because you’re a doer. We need you. You need you.
With love, Kristie