Our culture is full of expressions that glorify the idea of perfection. Phrases like “practice makes perfect” come to mind, as if we could rehearse our way to flawlessness. If you’re unwilling to accept nothing less than perfection, you might fall into the trap of thinking you’re not doing enough because you’re not perfect.
Perfection is a great thing to reach for, but for the most part, perfection by nature is out of our grasp. Consider legendary football coach Vince Lombardi’s perspective when he said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” See, it’s not that we shouldn’t strive for perfection. Perfection is a great goal as long as we understand that it is rarely, if ever, achievable.
Also we ought to recognize that if we do achieve what we deem as perfection, there’s a good chance we aren’t being ambitious enough. It is within failure where the lessons are learned. It is only when we miss the mark that we revise our aim. If failure is not an option, perhaps the goal is too easy to achieve.
It’s awesome to have huge goals, but try chunking them down into smaller, actionable steps. Focus on what you can do today to further your cause. It can be easy to get discouraged if your goal is to change the world and you aren’t able to complete that task in a day. Focus instead on what you can accomplish. What are some tiny noticeable improvements you can strive for right now?
I think it’s great you want to change the world. I do too. But the world’s a big place. If we’re going to be effective, we’re going to have to celebrate the little victories along the way and learn to enjoy the process. The person who loves walking for the sake of walking will go a lot farther than the person who is focused on the destination.
Would you rather get better or get best? When you get better, you keep striving. You continue to innovate. You bob and weave and do what you can with what you’ve got. However, if you were to get best, you’d probably puff up your chest, tell yourself you’re perfect, and then relax because it’s now the off-season. If you get best, it’s OK to stop trying because you’ve already reached the top. But the secret to continuously improving is realizing the mountaintop is an illusion. You can always do better, and that’s OK.
William W. Brown is founder and board chair of Legacy Early College. wbrown@legacyearlycollege.org
