Perfection is not an option, so get over it.
I am not a perfectionist. I'm sloppy, I make mistakes and I break things all the time. For the longest time I thought that this was a flaw in my personality. I was always in awe of the perfect. My whole life I chased the perfect. It was and still is exhausting and it doesn't work.
In the last few years I have begun to change. The agent of change - a few perfectionists that I work with. They lack important qualities that strangely I have. I fail they never do. I crank out imperfect ideas that aren't always thought through. I question processes that are "perfect the way they are". I am the antagonist of perfection. I'm messy and ready for the next mistake on the horizon. All my flaws make me a great asset! Who knew!
I found out that perfection has major problems. Perfectionisms problems are:
Speed
Vision
Change
New ideas
Speed:
Perfection takes a helluva long time. You've got to test, you've get to edit and when you are done? You have to test and edit some more. Speed in the age of the internet is the most important thing in world. From the speed of your pages to the speed of your releases - speed is the constant that moves the internet forward. Speed and perfection do not go together. You can have one or the other but not both.
Vision:
Perfection has a hard time with vision. Here is why? There is nothing to compare vision to. Perfection wants to be compared to something so it can be perfect when compared to it. Sure that's a little convoluted but think of it this way - if you had never had a Chips Ahoy chocolate cookie and you ate one, it would be perfect. Crunchy, dry and chocolaty - it would be heavenly. Let's say you then had an awesome homemade fresh chocolate cookie that was just right. Warm and slightly melted chocolate. That Chips Ahoy cookie wouldn't be so perfect anymore.
Perfect needs a benchmark. Vision requires that you see past what exists and move into the messy world of new, innovative and sloppy. Vision means mistakes and perfection, by definition, means no mistakes allowed.
Change:
Physics tells us that bodies in motion want to stay in motion. To get something that is moving to stop or change direction you need a force of equal or higher energy. Change is that force. Change is a collision of higher force in your process that causes your companies motion go in a different direction. Does all that sound like it could be perfect or neatly done? Hell no. When a change comes, pieces break off, things are smashed and there can be injuries. Is a perfectionist going to sign up for change? You tell me?
New Ideas:
We're all quick to point out bad ideas. We're all ready to see flaws in peoples ideas. Its in our nature. Bad ideas are not perfect - but without bad ideas how do you get to new ideas? Perfectionism stiffles the new idea or worse yet prevents the perfectionist from telling folks their ideas. All of our other items - speed, vision and change are components of new ideas. Pefection is the enemy of the new. New ideas require acceptance of the the unknown and messy. The unknown isn't is the realm of the new. A perfectionist will work on a new idea until it is perfect - the problem is they will never ship their idea because new and perfect don't exist.
There is a lot of duplication in my little argument but it is important to shed like on all the issues with perfection. To the messy, sloppy, troublesome do'ers this one is for you. Don't be perfect, don't give up and get getting your terrible bad ideas out in the world. Embrace your messyness.
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