King Solomon, considered as the wisest of all men at his time wrote, “He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.”
If we’re waiting for the perfect and the most favorable condition to do something, we may never get started. The truth is that most of us are afraid of failing, so we hesitate to take the first step.
And if we somehow did manage to get started, we didn’t get too far. We stopped at some point because somewhere in the journey we convinced ourselves that we’re not ready yet or not that good.
At its root, perfectionism isn’t really about a deep love of being meticulous. It’s about fear. Fear of making a mistake. Fear of disappointing others.
— Michael Law | Author
Even the pursuit of excellence can quickly translate into an obsession to do things perfectly. And it usually happens when we overly focus on getting it right because we have become very conscious of people’s reaction.
Author and journalist Julia Cameron quotes, “Perfectionism doesn’t believe in practice shots. It doesn’t believe in improvement. Perfectionism has never heard that anything worth doing is worth doing badly and that if we allow ourselves to do something badly we might in time become quite good at it. Perfectionism measures our beginner’s work against the finished work of masters. Perfectionism thrives on comparison and competition.
If you love doing something that gives you joy, go for it. Forget perfecting it, just get started. You won’t regret that you never took the chance.
