5 reasons why you should stop trying to be perfect

Perfection is what we all thrive for. We’ve been educated with perfection in mind. At school, at home, everywhere, always we were told to be perfect. Perfect child, perfect scholar, perfect girl, perfect boy. We’re also asked to be perfect daughter & son, then perfect mom & dad, perfect sister, brother, friend and life partner. At work it’s the same. Be a perfect employee, perfect colleague, perfect boss ! We all know it’s impossible but we’re running after perfection all our life.

Well ! It’s not impossible, it’s counter productive. Today, being perfect is a handicap !

Trying to be perfect in all is dysfunctional. We focus our limited resources on behaviors that we will never be good at instead of focusing on our strengths. So we become average in all.

Trying to be perfect brings a continuous stress. We’re always struggling to reach a goal with no hope of being successful at it. We run to catch an ever flying bird ! But we go on and on…

Trying to be perfect gets us to care about non important things. We plunge into details to reassure us that we’re good. It makes us loose “the big picture”. In business, it’s a real pity. Thousands of people forget about the important to focus on some stupid details.

Trying to be perfect kills our creativity. Today, creativity is vital. No company or organization will survive without a good deal of idea generation. But more than generate ideas, we need to implement them. Imagine, implement, fail, understand and try again. That’s how we should learn today. By the way, this is how little kids learn to walk !

Finally,  trying to be perfect is boring ! How many days of our life have we spent at school with boring teachers trying to make us good in everything. The more bored we are, the less we learn and the worst we are.

Forget about your shortcomings and focus on what you’re good at. This is true for people but it’s also true for businesses and any organization.

Be inspired !