In search of Perfection

A comment left by Raven on my post titled “Is Perfect Worth It?” led me to her post titled “Personal Growth Article: The 3 P’s: Perfectionism, Procrastination, and Paralysis by Gina Hiatt“. Gina Hiatt’s article can be found here: “The 3 P’s: Perfectionism, Procrastination, and Paralysis“.

This was a great article and I’m thankful to Raven for pointing it out. The 3 P’s is a wonderful way of looking at that strive to perfection. A brief summary of the 3P’s follows:

PERFECTIONISM
Perfectionism can be defined as striving towards IMPOSSIBLY high goals. Perfectionists are caught in a TRAP -– they can never be good enough. They engage in rigid, black or white thinking about their own performance -– if it isn’t perfect, it’s horrible.

PROCRASTINATION
When you believe that your next project should set the world on fire, you are setting yourself up for failure. At some level you know that this LEVEL of achievement is UNLIKELY. You lose your energy and excitement for your project.

PARALYSIS
You do absolutely NOTHING on the very project that is most important to you. This is devastating for your self-esteem, and very DISCOURAGING. It’s hard to plan your next project when you failed to complete your last one.

The article provides some ideas on avoiding the 3P’s…but I’ll leave you to read them to get the majority of the tips…but the one that jumped out at me was the following:

Look for role models who are SATISFIED with “good enough.” Note how they get things done and are not looked down on by others.

This goes back to the first line in my “Is Perfect Worth It” post:

“Don’t let perfect ruin good”

– Harry Beckwith