This morning, I found myself revising a post I started a month ago for the 10th time. #Perfectionism can be GOOD because you strive to do your best. It can be BAD when it gets in the way of getting things done. How perfectionistic are YOU?
How Important is Perfection to You? How "good" do Things You Do Have to Be?
8 years ago in #perfectionism by denmarkguy (78)
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In most cases I'm just fine with something as long as it works, it doesn't have to be perfect, it just have to get the job done. When baking a bread just for myself I couldn't care less if the scale is a bit off or it doesn't rise as much as it should, as long as it's somewhat edible and tasty in the end.
However, when I do something creative or when I create anything, like the above bread, for the public eye, then there is no end to my perfectionism. Especially drawing and painting are things that I can work on forever, always correcting and adjusting, never satisfied. It has taken me a great deal of work with myself to be able to just let things go, to tell myself "now, this is done, leave it alone."
Steemit has actually been really good for my creative perfectionism in many ways, most notable the vast amount of creative contests because they demand something from you here and now, so there is simply not enough time to obsess about every single detail.
Ah yes, now you are touching on one of my areas of contemplation: "Situational Ethics."
How much I care becomes contingent on who the end "consumer" of what I am doing might be. I'm much the same as you with food and baking, unless of course guests are coming for dinner and then it has to be many degrees more perfect.
When it comes to art and creative endeavors, quite a bit gets sorted away under "second quality," especially when it is something I end up having to offer for sale.
I do like Steemit a lot for the vast range of possibilities. I can knock out a @zappl post like this one in a few minutes (I do tend to think a bit about those, even!) or I can take several hours to write a long for post of some level of "deep meaning."
Perfection use to be a weapon that beat me down daily for failing to live up to it. If given the opportunity it would have killed me. A couple of years back I realized progression and improvement where key not unattainable reality.
These days I much rather focus on effort, Improvement, and satisfaction. Sure perfection could be result of these things but I prefer to toss it out of the picture all together. When it comes to those three things I want least hit mark on two of them. It would be perfection if I strived and forced myself for all three and I’m not let that back into the picture. If that even makes any sense.
I spent a lot of time laboring under my own inability to ever get anything done within the allotted time-- anything from writing contests to work projects-- as a result of which I had a very high "failure rate," at least in my own opinion.
Steemit has actually been a good "practice ground" for me; I am learning to finish content on a regular basis and just put it "out there." In a weird indirect fashion, it's a result of this place not having a "drafts" function... otherwise I'd probably be publishing a lot less, and I'd have a drafts folder here with 50 unfinished pieces. So this has been great training in "create it and launch it."
I like making thinks that do little but do it well. That's the Unix philosophy. A think that does just one thing but does it extremely well. I could even settle with something that does one think extremely well just for the 80% of the possible use cases.
I've discovered that when you do that you can combine things to accommodate for more complex requirements.
In the other hand I'm very demanding of myself in the basics. I feel that if the basics are poorly one, no further complexity can be build upon.
I also don't strive for completeness. Completeness is not a must in most cases.
That said. In cases where a lot is on the stake I tend to think like astronaut's Chris Hadfield: "What's the next thing that could 'kill' me?"
I tend to like a similar philosophy; keep things simple, but make them do whatever their purpose might be extremely well. It's something I have made work in many aspects of my life.
I guess I generally avoid thinking about "completeness," in the sense that there are always "subsequent iterations" of most things in life. And I tend to "chunk small," so a little segment might become complete but it only represents a small fraction of a greater (incomplete) whole.
Not overly. My son is a bit too much I feel...and it effects his ability to get his work done.... I tell him there is something to be said for getting a job done.
That pretty much used to be my challenge — I wouldn't get nearly enough done/finished because I was always "fiddling with it" because it seemed like it wasn't quite good enough.
Yes! It is maddening to me though lol. I tell him if it doesn't get down the grade is going to be bad no matter what, just turn it in!! LOL
I strive for various degrees of "perfectionism" based on the activity that I am trying to complete.
I call this functional perfectionism. When the activity demands perfectionism then I strive to be perfect. But if not being perfect does not harm the overall results, then I try my best, but I do not beat myself up if I make a mistake.
I rather like that term, "functional perfectionism."
It took me some years of practice to become happy with simply "doing my best," and recognizing that in any given situation, "my best" might not be perfect... and that offering a "100% solution" instead of a "95% solution" required a ridiculous increase in the amount of work needed.
Yeah same is the case with me..I revised my recent post for 3 days and just an hr ago published it...
I think moderate perfection is what required...
I like to write in a flow when my mood is right....If I leave a post incomplete, the next day will be difficult...As with new day comes a new mood and new demands of perfection.
In an "ideal world" that's how I like to write, as well... but I almost never get any contiguous time for writing... most of my posts end up being three minutes here; five minutes there until something has been more or less put together. It's the "final polishing" that ends up taking a lot of time.
Yeah final polishing is where I lag...I often get disheartened after continuously working on a post and over looks the final touch...May be you can make a post about polishing a post...it will be a great help for guys like me...
I understand what you are saying. Sometimes I end up starting a reply and can't finish it to my standards until the next day.
It's just a reply!
You'd think I'd get over it and just punch the [post] button. You should see how long it takes me to complete a post.The sad thing is that even having admitted all that, I'm so much more mellow than I was when I was younger. I still may actually post this reply then edit it 2 more times before you collect your rewards. (Arrrgh!)
It's JUST a reply!
Sometimes when I get into that frame of mind I end up just copying the reply to a text editor and saving it to work into a post of its own, later on. Because it will have gotten too long and involved, already.
I have gotten a lot better with age... not nearly as picky as I used to be.
Been there, done that, have the post to prove it! 😩 (sigh!)
Psychological perfectionism is a personal trait, in which a person seeks perfection, sets very high standards of performance, accompanied by exaggerated monetary evaluations, and fears of third-party evaluations. It is best to evaluate them as multidimensional, where psychologists have agreed to include many positive and negative traits as well. For me to be happy and live a life without misfortunes
Wow... OK, that's some heavy analysis there. But yes, the idea is to find balance and in the process of doing to, obtain a measure of happiness.
When you need to do something very quick at that time perfectionism can create some problem,otherwise perfectionism always keep your content or task in a different level.perfectionism helps to improve your work all the time,because when you want something perfect then you will work hard for sure.Thank's for the post.@upvoted and resteemed
I have just learned to be happy with "doing my best," rather than expecting something to be perfect. And sometimes, setting standards for ourselves that are almost impossible to reach actually serve as a way to deliberately KEEP us from ever completing anything.
perfection is the enemy of 'good enough'.
True 'nuff...
perfection is the most important thing and behind the perfection there must be deficiencies.
If by that you mean that people sometimes use perfection to try to hide their fear of defects, I agree.
that's some iasue
perfection..is the most imporatant thing
thank you
nothing to say ,just perfect.
go ahead in this away....