“Perfection is the enemy of results.” – John Tarrant

I am a perfectionist in many ways. Or at least I have been, particularly around my writing and artistic efforts. I freely admit it. I am working more and more, however, on not being one. Perfectionism seems to me to be a problem in our culture. Everyone wants to perfect themselves – their faces, bodies, health, homes, lives, jobs, partners. And it’s a pastime so often admired: “The relentless pursuit of perfection,” was a Lexus slogan once.

But I think we often worry so much about doing something perfectly that we miss doing anything at all. We miss enjoying our lives just as they are, appreciating what we have and where we are, because we are too busy looking forward to the next thing to change.

And that, to me, is a problem. While I’m all for improving and growing, I think there is a fine line between self-improvement and the race toward perfection that we have to watch out for. So going forward I’m going to carry this quote along with me as one of my mantras, and focus more on the starting and doing of things instead of just how I envision finishing them.