The tyranny of perfectionism.

Do you put off doing things to make sales because you’re not perfect at it? Have you ever stopped to actually write down what you think perfection is and whether it’s attainable? So many people fear failure as if it’s a curse from which they’ll never recover, yet without failure there’d be no great inventions or medical miracles.

Without failure we’d never look beyond the narrow confines of our lives, which would at best be mediocre. Plus, without practice (and therefore some failure), we never get enough experience to come even close to perfection.

What then is the point of insisting on being ‘perfect’ before you even try? For some it’s an easy out, they can refuse to try and make others take care of them. They will always cry about their lack of perfection and in so doing will deflect criticism (for the most part) so that they don’t have to answer for their behaviour.

The problem with this is that it leaves the ‘perfectionist’ powerless. They are always at the mercy of events and other people because they refuse to be responsible for themselves. Instead, they cite their imperfection as the excuse for not doing, whilst at the same time retaining their right to bemoan their lot and the infamy of others.

Then there is the person who is so uptight about being perfect that they focus their whole attention on becoming perfect. They practice, they evaluate, they ask for feedback, they continually strive to perfect and are never satisfied with their performance.

Sometimes these people not only expect perfection from themselves but from all around them as well, creating in the process an atmosphere of fear and failure.

Because there is no such thing as universal perfection, perfection as defined by the dictionary includes;

• Having all essential elements
• Unblemished, faultless
• Utter or absolute
• Correct or precise
• Excellent in all respects
• Exactly divisible into equal integral or polynomial roots
• Having all parts present
• Denoting a tense of verbs used in describing an action that has been completed by the subject
• Of or relating to the intervals of the unison, forth, fifth and octave

Also; Full, final.
So, which perfect are you aiming for? Because before you can say how close you are, you need to know what it is you’re trying to achieve.

Written by Jacqui Coooper who offers life and sales coaching in both the US and UK.

You may use this article as content for your site provided you keep this portion complete with links intact and credit me as the author.