Are You A Perfectionist?

I was a perfectionist! Now, I am no longer one. Do you know why?

I still remember an incident that had happened while I was still a teenager. We were supposed to do spring-cleaning for a student clubroom. One club member and myself were assigned to clean the window glass panels. He would cover half the portion while I covered the other half. He finished his portion rather fast and went off. I took quite sometime to finish my portion. Of course, I was curious how come he could finish so fast while I took so long.

When I had examined his works, I got angry about it. The window glass panels were reasonably cleaned but they were not spotless! According to my perfectionist standard, the glass panels must be completely spotless!

From this, I have learnt that I would always suffer from unnecessarily anger. This is because my perfectionist standards unlikely to be met.

Also, I have noted that I took considerably more time than a non-perfectionist. I would feel stress trying to be perfect if there is a time constraint on the task. If there were no time constraint, I would end up being less productive compared to a non-perfectionist.

Lastly, I have realized that there was a subject view of what is perfect. Most people do not even notice the difference between a perfect standard and a reasonably good standard. I would not be appreciated for the extra efforts because most people would not notice the difference. Most of the time, a reasonably good standard is practical enough to be accepted by most people.

Of course, I did not change overnight just because one incident. The turning point of my life is when I have started working. Due to the nature of the work, the assigned tasks always have very tight deadlines. As a result, I felt very stressful during that period because I tried to be a perfectionist. Also, I was angry because I felt that the time given to complete the assigned tasks were simply unfair! After suffering for a period of time, I have realized that it is not practical to stick to perfectionism!

Nowadays, when given any task, I would ask myself whether there is a practical need for the task to be perfect.

Certain tasks do need a perfect standard. For example, a heart transplants surgery will require a perfect standard to ensure a higher chance of survival for the patient.

Certain tasks do need not required perfect standard. For example, a house cleaning will require a reasonably good standard for hygienic purpose. A perfect standard does not help much because the floor always gets dirty. What is more practical to do is to clean the house more regularly.

The weekly idea that I will like to share with you is: Always strike a balance between perfection and practicality for any task

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About The Author-- Max Ng shares about his struggle for success at http://www.yourgreatestgift.com. Currently, he is learning from successful people at http://www.secrets4me.com. He also loves to take good photos with a compact digital camera. His photography tips can be found at http://www.addictivephoto.com

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