Responsiveness is Better than Perfection

The last few years this mantra has come to be a signature one in my working with individuals and teams. Many of us are groomed to achieve perfection, and many of us have made good lives for ourselves striving for this illusion. The illusion is fine, I suppose, if you can do so productively. What I see though, is that most do not chase this illusion too productively. Or maybe a better way of saying it is that most could be more productive if the toxic energy of self-condemnation resulting from a lack of perfection, were converted to the energy of self-encouragement, compassion and persistence resulting from a spirit of responsiveness. 

I see responsiveness as a good alternative to perfection for a few reasons:

1) Its Achievable as responsiveness to ever changing requirements, environments and situations is achievable whereas perfection is not and especially given its subjective nature.

2) Its Adaptive as responsiveness does not presume the achievement of perfection but instead continually adapts to new requirements of change to achieve the best productive goal from moment to moment. 

3) Its Positive as responsiveness consistently sets up an open, alert, hopeful, generally positive outlook regarding the next steps. This is energy is light, fluid, fun, more prone to hatching the next creative solution versus the relatively heavier, condemnatory, often stagnant and guilty energy that comes with an expectation of perfection.

Now for those of us who are addicted to the requirement of perfection, take a read at my WiseWorking post, "The Perfect is The Enemy of the Good". I think it important that we understand that giving up perfection does not mean that we cannot be excellent. I even submit that we can be more excellent if we strive for less perfection, and truth be told, the world does excellently  with more excellence than with any perfection.

The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good

This quote, attributed to the French philosopher Voltaire is more valid today than ever. This is so much so that I have found that those (perfectionists) who ignore this quote rob themselves of a great deal of health, sanity and satisfaction in life. As a born, and further raised "perfectionist", I have spent most of my life beating myself and being beat by others because I did not perfectly execute a task. This inability to achieve (perceived) perfection has, and continues to be, the cause of more tears, lost sleep, anger, guilt, bitterness, worry, doubt, fear and procrastination than any other other in my life.

One of the greatest gift I have been given in life, by a former boss of mine, Stan Woodland, are the insights that:

1) there are 4 levels of performance that are possible in life: perfection, excellence, adequacy and inadequacy
2) perfection, or penultimate performance, is futile to expect because the definition is narrow and ever changing
3) excellence, or above average performance, is a better performance goal than perfection because it can be achieved more consistently. Also more people agree on its definition.

As I have worked to adjust my expectations of myself and others to these insights over the years I have become less anxious, overbearing, vindictive, stressed, angry and procrastinating. This has been replaced by greater patience, calm, balance, perseverance, resilience, ability to forgive (let go) myself and others and satisfaction with what I achieve. This has, indeed, bee one of the greatest transformations of my life. So much so that I teach these insights in all my classes, whether at my church or at the university.

All this said, I work in environments where this is not often convention wisdom and so I have to continually bring myself to a remembrance of the truth and benefit of these insights. I offer these insights hoping you will use them to gain more satisfaction from what you are getting done and be more forgiving of, and educated by, that which have not yet gotten done.