Getting to Good Enough
Do you strive for perfection? Do you spend hours obsessing over the tiniest details of your life until they’re exactly right? Do you feel uncomfortable when everything in your life isn’t “just so”? Are you prepared for every eventuality, even the most unlikely?
In short, are you a perfectionist?
There are times when perfection is called for, of course, but allow me to suggest to you that most of the time, “good enough” will do. There’s a point where it takes more and more energy to achieve smaller and smaller gains — where you’re putting in as much effort as you’ve spent on a project so far to get a tiny 1% or 2% improvement.
It can be hard to accept imperfections, though. We all want to shine, and often feel that we won’t be recognized unless our work is absolutely flawless. Yet there are plenty of examples where this isn’t the case. Walt Whitman felt that his book Leaves of Grass, the book that established his place in the American literature canon, was never quite right, and re-issued revised editions throughout his life. Countless authors have complained about their early work — some claim they can’t even bear to read the works that launched them to national attention! The sciences are based on the premise that you publish as soon as your work is “good enough” — and let the rest of the science world try to perfect it.
And yet we struggle. We concede a lot when we aim for less than perfection. Here are a few ways to get over these blocks and get your work, whatever it is, out into the world.
Planning
As with everything else, getting to “good enough” starts with planning. Start with your objective: You may have an image in your head of what a perfect outcome would look like, but what does a an outcome you can live with look like? Begin your planning with an outcome in mind that’s good enough to get the job done.
It might be helpful to compare your perfect outcome and your good enough outcome. What’s different in how you achieve each? Consider, for example, the desire to write a book. Of course, we all want to write a best-seller, to sell millions of copies and go on Oprah and with the Nobel Prize for Literature. That’s perfect! But maybe selling a few thousand copies, winning a couple of honorable mentions, and building a strong platform for the next book is good enough to be worth your time and effort. Some of the steps you need to reach either outcome are the same: getting a publisher, choosing a topic, marketing your book, making appearances, getting your book reviewed, and so on. But that perfect outcome is going to require you to take a lot of other steps, many of which are somewhat unrealistic (like getting nominated for a Nobel Prize). Planning can help you identify steps that are unrealistic given the nature of your product, your other obligations, your financial status, and the way the world works.
Second, set benchmarks for your project that are good enough to move on. If you’re launching a business, maybe you’d like to have a thousand clients, but for now, getting the first 10 is good enough — it gives you something to work with. Again, by making clear benchmarks, and determining what you have to do to achieve them, you’ll be able to identify some that are entirely unreasonable — tone those down to a doable level.
At any step, of course, you can always go beyond “good enough” towards “perfect” — but focus first and foremost on building the necessary foundation.
Confidence
Often, our push towards perfection is not driven by a desire to do our best but by a fear that our work — and our self — isn’t good enough. Since we lack basic confidence in our ability to make something worthwhile, we invest more and more energy into our projects trying to push them just a little bit further.
Confidence can be a tricky thing; just saying “be more confident” probably won’t solve all your problems. Building self-confidence is really a life journey, not a quick fix.
That said, there are steps you can take to build up your confidence level.
- Catalog your successes, no matter how small.
- Set yourself up for successes by planning achievable benchmarks and goals (as above).
- Make a list of your strengths. Be honest — there are probably more than you think!
- Make a list of your weaknesses, and focus on improving them. Again, be honest — there are probably less than you think.
- Discuss your weaknesses with your loved ones. They probably have a different perspective!
- Give yourself explicit permission to fail at something. Don’t make your self-worth contingent on constant success.
Make perfect mistakes
One reason people become perfectionists is that they’re afraid of making even the smallest mistakes — which is, ultimately, self-defeating. Mistakes are the stuff of personal growth, and making the right mistakes can help you build a firmer foundation for any project. Embrace mistakes as part of the process of getting to good enough.
Embracing mistakes means more than just accepting them, though. The point isn’t to make the same mistake over and over but to analyze and learn from each mistake. Sometimes they’ll come as a result of your personal weaknesses, but not usually. More often mistakes are the result of unknown external factors and planning with insufficient information. Perfectionism doesn’t correct for those things — it avoids them by keeping your project locked inside your head and away from the messy real world.
Putting your best foot forward
The problem with perfectionism is that, ironically, it keeps you from putting your best work into the world. Even worse, it keeps your work from being as good as it can possibly be. Why? Because in the effort to make your work better-than-human, it becomes less-than-human. All the human imperfections that make it yours are squeezed out of it.
To err is human, they say. Those human imperfections add character, your character. I think of The Replacements, a band that Rolling Stone once featured on its cover with the caption “The Greatest Rock and Roll Band of All Time”. If you’ve ever heard them, you know that at their best, they were sloppy (often sloppy drunk), ragged, unpolished — their early songs always sound just on the verge of falling apart completely. Instead, they fell together, bringing an energy and vitality to music that had been stripped clean, over the course of the early MTV years, of all its appeal.
There’s a difference between good enough and half-assed. There was nothing half-assed about The Replacements — they embraced their calling and made great music. A lot of the advice out there for perfectionists says to “settle for 80%, 60%, or less” — their hearts are in the right place, but getting to good enough isn’t about settling, it’s about achieving greatness. Perfectionism isn’t a problem because it does too much, it’s a problem because in trying to do too much it causes us to do nothing at all.
You can’t “settle” for a half-assed job when your reputation, income, and possibly the well-being of your customers, audience, or clients are on the line. But the fact is you can avoid perfectionism and still create work that is good enough — that does what it’s supposed to do reliably. Good planning, confidence in yourself, learning from your mistakes — these are the elements of a job done well enough; unrealistic planning, a lack of confidence, and avoiding mistakes are the hallmarks of both perfectionism and half-assed work.
Go figure!
WRITER'S BIOGRAPHY
Dustin Wax
Dustin M. Wax is a freelance writer and project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He is also the creator of The Writer's Technology Companion, a site devoted to the tools of the writing trade. When he's not writing, he teaches anthropology and gender studies in Las Vegas, NV. He is the author of Don't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.
Follow him on Twitter: @dwax.
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Comments
HRagitator says on March 21st, 2008 at 11:19 am
This is called the point of diminishing returns, and it’s one of the few things I consistently apply in my life. When I was in college, I would study just enough to get a 90% (an A at my school). The way I figured it, the person who gets a 100% and the person who gets a 90% both got an A and both got a 4 on their GPA. Why should I study the extra five hours to get those last few points. Good post.
Carlos Carvajal says on March 21st, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Great article!!!
I consider myself perfectionist and that is my problem, to be happy everyone around me had to perfectionist too and that’s impossible. This will help me to be more confident and to focus on more realistic goals.
Regards,
Carlos
Ramona Iftode says on March 21st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I learnt something good from my Karate classes: I need to be better than myself, that’s what I need to care about. I don’t waste time trying to outdo my coleagues, I just try to be better in what I do and progress as much as I can possibly do. This has made me better than others too and also always improving myself.
Excellent article, so glad I found it.
jd says on March 21st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
Charlie Gilkey says on March 21st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Great post, Dustin. This complements an ethos that I give to more junior grad students: “good enough is good enough and way better than incomplete.” They think I’m joking with them until they hit their third semester and realize how many things they didn’t complete because they were stuck trying to make something perfect.
I also agree wholeheartedly that mistakes are the stuff of personal growth. As the saying goes, “if you’re not making mistakes, you’re not doing anything.”
Shifting from thinking about perfection to thinking about excellence has really helped me out with the tendency to quest for perfection. Perfection is undefinable and unachievable; excellence can be defined and achieved precisely because you can answer what makes this product, thing, or person excellent.
Tagged, dugg, and placed in my “write about something Dustin said” queue.
Linda Griffin says on March 21st, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Great post! I tackled this subject briefly on my blog with a post entitled “Done is better than perfect”. http://www.careershock.com/don.....n-perfect/
One of the biggest problems I see with striving for perfection is that you miss opportunities. In the case of a product launch, your competitor may beat you to market. In the case of an internal project, you miss the opportunity to free up time that could be spent completing other tasks.
JR says on March 21st, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Great Post, I been thinking the same exact points you listed in the articles for months, but ironically I guess I been trying to perfect my internal strategy to escape from it. “The Lazy Perfectionist”
Peter T - webshop says on March 21st, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Good post. Another key point to consider is the need to have a clear vision and purpose. What is your goal? What is it that you are attempting to achieve? Once you understand this, you can then do your best to focus on the goal.
Rob L says on March 21st, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Thank you for this entry about recognizing when work is good enough. I am in the midst of a project that I keep fiddling with. Meanwhile the deadline for its completion looms in the immediate future. One of the things I am realizing is that my relationships to the different sides of my own personality are important, and a precursor to how I treat others. Part of me is a perfectionist, but I also have other parts to who I am. Being kind to myself rather than putting myself down is more helpful in producing good results. This helps me to work in a more productive manner, by uniting these different elements within me.
Perfect Life Project says on March 22nd, 2008 at 12:03 am
Great post. I truly believe bold action is more important than perfect execution. Strategically it can be the difference between winning and losing in business and sport. The element of surprise or the first to market imperative is so powerful.
In my opinion this is a part of Apple’s success. They design some incredible new technologies with sensational user appeal and get them to market quickly, sometimes with a few imperfections. They then iron out the wrinkles once the first generation of the product has hit the market. It gives Apple a massive head start on the rest of the market.
Its also important to realise that no-one or no thing is absolutely perfect, so if you have a great idea it is better to have it out in the market rather than continually trying to perfect it.
Claudio Criscione says on March 22nd, 2008 at 8:44 am
While I agree with most of the post, there are two things I’d like to point out.
1)Have you aver read Machiavelli? Let me cite a small paragraph from the Prince: “[...]Imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour. This is like the skilful archer, who seeing that the object he would hit is distant, and knowing the range of his bow, takes aim much above the destined mark; not intending that his arrow should strike that high, but, in flying high, it may land at the point intended.
2) As Seth Godin keeps saying, beying good is not enough anymore. You have to be remarkable.
This said, I completely agree with one of your sentences: “trying to do too much [..] causes us to do nothing at all.”. That’s the problem with perfectionists :)
JudiFree.com says on March 22nd, 2008 at 10:30 am
I did a similar post last week. My conclusion was: Perfection is a journey and you pass through “good” to get there.
DON’T MAKE PERFECT THE ENEMY OF GOOD
Jay Heyman says on March 22nd, 2008 at 10:52 am
couldn’t agree more. It’s a basic point in my blog and my book, coming out this May from Wiley, called “All You Need is a Good Idea!” While it is based on how small businesses can learn to stand out by creating good marketing ideas, the point is true for much in life. You can stand paralyzed, thinking every idea is not good enough and end up doing nothing. Not a good idea.
Ayn says on March 22nd, 2008 at 11:01 am
Fantastic article. Just what I needed. Now if only I can find the perfect way to apply it… no, retrack… just start applying it and figure it out as I go. Learning by doing. The best really is the enemy of the good.
Hope this reply was good enough.
Jeff Bellamy says on March 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Good Enough also holds true for the things we buy.
Some people always want to have the best and are in an endless cycle to buy bigger, better and newer. This can be damaging to their personal finances.
Buying Good Enough means not having to buy the “Best”. It also means not wasting your money on something that isn’t good enough and then having to replace it.
Good Enough has also helped me to have a successful marriage. If you’re a perfectionist you might never get married at all or you might end up divorced because you’re always looking for something better and your spouse dumps you or you find it and dump your spouse.
Good Enough is not settling for less. If I was building a time machine, good enough would mean it actually works!!! You can always work for incremental improvements but that shouldn’t stop you from acting.
Perfectly Yours
Jeff Bellamy
ps what’s with all the trackbacks for mp3s
Lischen says on March 22nd, 2008 at 7:30 pm
perfection or no perfection, that’s the question!
John says on March 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 am
I disagree. If you want to write the next Leaves of Grass you have to strive for perfection. Your anecdote about Whitman only shows he was a perfectionist who could never settle for less than his ideal. That other authors won’t read their old works only further proves that a goal of perfection, or even excellence, is what they’re after.
If your point is that you shouldn’t let imperfections keep you from continuing to try and continuing to produce, fine, but if your point is that you should be OK with less than your goal, then you’ll not reach your goal, ever.
Ask Tiger Woods if the insane amount of extra effort is worth the extra 1 – 2% for him.
RandyS says on March 23rd, 2008 at 12:35 pm
John,
Tiger Woods is a one in a Billion individual as a golfer. If we all attained the same level as Tiger, then none of us would be outstanding. As such, then 99% of all humans are perfect, compared to some other life form such as an earthworm. I hope you get my point…
It is like trying to have 0 deaths and accidents with air travel, while looking the other way when over 40,000 people die every year in cars.
Recognizing that perfection is the goal but rarely attainable makes our journey through life a bit more sustainable.
Matt Hyatt says on March 24th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Great article. I was going to read the whole thing, but I felt I’d done “good enough” by the time I got half way through! ;-)
Nice job!
Jeff Axelrod says on March 25th, 2008 at 9:27 am
I found a relevant article at the New York Times, talking about how spending too much time (perfectionism) making choices robs us of often hidden opportunity costs.
Check out my blog, http://www.tipninja.com, the where I share tips from optimizing your PC use, to cooking and food storage and household organization to personal happiness.
Phyllis Roteman says on March 28th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Well said Dustin! How often do people in organizations today see everything as an equal priority? Every email becomes URGENT. Twenty things don’t get done because someone was going crazy because they couldn’t get one graphic to look EXACTLY right.
Striving for perfectionism causes people to lose focus on what’s really important.
I remember my boss, in my first consulting job, telling me that it’s the client who defines expectations. In other words, it’s our job as consultants to find out what “good enough” and “great” mean to the client. This was important, because as a self-confessed perfectionist, I learned that often I was delivering Mercedes when clients just wanted stripped-down Fords.
Finally…I embraced the idea that when a client wants a Ford (nothing wrong with that)…I should give them the very best Ford that their money can buy. They’re happy and so am I. And I have more time to focus on the clients who want the customized Mercedes. Everyone wins.
I also recall some research showing the difference between world-class athletes and those who had potential but never peaked. (Wish I could cite the source…anyone know?) It showed that top athletes like Michael Jordan were able to shake off failures quickly. Basically, Jordan would miss a shot and put it behind him. Every shot was his first. There’s a near-perfect basketball pro who didn’t worry about being perfect.
You don’t always need to make a 3-pointer. Sometimes a free throw can win the game. (Sorry for the tired sports analogies.)
I enjoyed reading! Phyllis