💡 Life Tip - How to Break the Curse of Perfectionism (Issue #55)

Let good enough become good enough

Perfectionism is the fear of failure in disguise.

I struggled with it for most of my life. Its cousin, procrastination, frequently joined the party.

I would keep tuning and tweaking whatever I was working on, hoping to make it better and better. I wanted to make it perfect. I thought I could avoid failure with 100% certainty if only I could achieve perfection with it.

However, there are many flaws with this so-called strategy:

• Perfection is impossible to attain.

• Aiming for perfection makes you deliver things late, which leads to failure.

• Even when something feels “perfect,” it still might fail.

I have certainly learned this with my writing. An article that I agonized over for weeks while trying to make it “perfect” would land with a thud. No one seemed to like it. Yet an article I cranked out in an hour was loved by many. This has happened more than once.

Failure is inevitable in life. I don’t care how much you try to avoid it. Eventually, you will fail at something. And, if you don’t get used to failure, you will be crushed when it occurs.

Instead, embrace failure as often as possible. Make it happen so frequently that you no longer fear it. Take away its power. It then becomes a learning opportunity.

Think of this as a vaccination. Inoculate yourself by becoming accustomed to micro-failures. Learn how to laugh it off, roll with it, and move on.

Now, when these little failures happen almost daily, I shrug and say, “Oh well. I’ll try again tomorrow.”

Keep showing up. Shake off failure. Keep trying. That’s how you win in life.

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Hi, I’m Larry Cornett, a Personal Coach who can work with you to optimize your career, life, or business. My mission is to help you take complete control of your life so you can become a more “Invincible You.” I currently live in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with my wife and Great Dane.

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