Done is better than Perfect

Have you ever believed that being a perfectionist is a good trait to have? Did you ever go into a job interview and say that your biggest weakness was being a perfectionist, confident that this wouldn’t be seen as such a weakness after all? I don’t know about you, but I’ve done this for sure.

For the longest time, I took pride in being a perfectionist, not realizing that perfection is one of the most glorified distractions. People commonly conflate perfectionism with having high standards, attention to detail, and a commitment to excellence, when in reality, true perfectionism tends to be rooted in a fear of failure. It comes with its own set of problems like procrastination, pressure, self-loathing, and a lot of stress.

There have been SO many brilliant ideas I haven’t executed because I just felt like if the outcome isn’t the best, then I don’t even want to attempt it. You can’t fail at something when you don’t even try it, right?

But a few years ago, I read this book ‘Big Magic’ (which is now one of my favourite books by the way) and it totally changed my perception on perfectionism. The writer puts it in simple words: “Done is better than good”, and reading this really made a light bulb go off in my head.

While perfectionism and attention to detail can be really good things, it can also be the wall we hide behind when we’re really just too afraid to put what we have out there. When you’re starting out, your work isn’t going to be perfect anyway, but to get to the level of perfection you’re aspiring for, you need to take the first step of actually putting imperfection out into the world. It’s important to fail fast and fail often so that you can learn from the errors and make changes quickly.

“Done is better than good” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive to create good things. It just means that finishing those good things is the most important part. Done trumps good. And done definitely trumps perfect.

So let go of perfection and strive for completion. Be the person who shows up and gets things done.