The perfectionist refuses to accept anything less than perfection and consequently defines imperfection as total failure. However, to truly perfect something you must be comfortable with imperfection and give yourself the opportunity to learn from your mistakes. Don’t let your attempts to create perfection stifle your ability to create. Perfectionism is a trap.
In Art & Fear, authors David Bayles and Ted Orland recount how a ceramics teacher’s experiment demonstrated the snare of perfection. He divided his class into groups. All of the students to his left would be graded based on the sheer quantity of their work. Fifty pounds of pots would secure an A. The students on his right would be graded according to the quality of their work and therefore only needed to produce one impeccable pot to receive an A. The class produced various pots — many poor, some good and a few great. In the end, an interesting pattern emerged. The highest quality pots were produced by the students graded on quantity. It seems that while the quantity group was diligently producing work, the quality group spent time conceptualizing perfection and actualized very little.
When we aim for perfection and fall short, we begin doubting. We feel defeated. We feel stuck. “Maybe I’ll never get this right.” Eventually, our doubt gives way to hesitation and we become averse to risk. When it gets stressful, we look for comfort. We stick to things that we’re already great at and shy away from things that we can’t imagine doing flawlessly. We stop experimenting and progress is suspended. In practice, the pursuit of perfection actually prevents us from perfecting.
Meaningful decision-making inherently produces some errors. If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not making decisions that elicit progress. Failure may disappoint you, but do not let it discourage you. There’s no chance of success without the possibility of failure. Fortunately, failure has an upside. Every misstep and shortcoming is an opportunity to find new ways to improve. They reveal the flaws in your process and provide you with the context needed to make optimizations.
Avoid fixating on ideals, which are illusive by design. Strive to make something good and incrementally refine it, ad infinitum. Get better by avoiding the ‘perfect trap.’
