One of the things that limit the progress of people is the trap of perfectionism. That is, they want every single detail to be without flaw. What you have to understand is that, more often than not, "done" is far better than "perfect." Someone can start a task, spend a lot of hours in trying to fine-tune every detail, yet does not finish the task. Or someone may have a great idea, or a dream of what they want to do, but because they are too worried and concerned that it may not appear flawless, they may not start at all. This is perfectionism trap. Some people may view perfectionism as something good because they believe it gives them high standards. But what they fail to understand is that it may be the thing limiting them from taking steps.
Someone may want to do something great, but because of fear of being judged, fear of making mistakes, or fear of not doing it well, they may not start. This fear can paralyse someone and lock the person's best ideas inside their mind. One of the dangers of perfectionism is that the absolute "perfect" does not even exist in reality. No matter how hard you try, and how hard you work, you will still find a small flaw. If you keep waiting for the perfect time to start, you may keep waiting forever. If you want to start a business for example, and you are waiting for the perfect support to start, you may not even start. You cannot predict life, so the perfect moment you expect may not come. This is why you have to start with what you have.
The main superpower is not really "perfect" but "done." If you want to achieve your goals, then you have to start. You have to focus on your finish line rather than being flawless. By that, you will unlock a lot of hidden benefits. A completed project that has a couple of mistakes is far better than a supposed perfect one that was never finished. At least, the imperfect but completed one will give you a real feedback on what to improve on. You will be able to see what worked and what did not work, so you will be able to do better next time. Any task you finish will teach you the necessary lessons that you will need to make the next attempt better.
I once read about the story of Reid Hoffman who is the founder of the popular website LinkedIn. When he was building the very first version of the website back in the early 2000s, he had a lot of tough choices to make. The first version, even though was functional to an extent, but it looked ugly, messy, and it lacked a lot of features. The Perfectionism instincts in him wanted to make him delay a bit so as to fix everything before launching. But he knew that any further delay might kill the idea of his business. Well, he chose to launch the website even without being perfect. To his surprise, it worked, and people liked the concept behind it, and they started to use it immediately.
As people used it, they gave their feedback and told him what to improve on, and what to work on. This made him to fix the website based on the real human needs, not on guesses and speculations. That was how LinkedIn started growing. Now, it has gained massive user-base, and Hoffman him has become a billionaire. When he was being interviewed sometimes ago, he made a statement, he said "if you do not feel a bit embarrassed with the first version of your product, then it might just mean that you launched it too late." He did not wait until the website was flawless before he launched it. Rather he simply launched it, got feedback from people, learnt a couple of things, and it got better over time.
Finishing a task and getting it done will give you momentum. When you complete something, it gives you a sense of winning, and will give you the zeal and the excitement to proceed with the next task. Action is what will build confidence, not overthinking which can create doubt. You will be surprised what the flawed but completed project can do to benefit others. A flawed book that you publish can inspire hundreds or thousands of readers than a perfect book that you never published. Always have in mind that the world will appreciate the idea that they have seen more than the flawless silence.
Thanks for reading
