I’ve been thinking a lot about perfectionism the past few weeks, as I’ve come to the realization I failed to fulfill my claim to produce one video a week for my YouTube channel. The goal was to “Release one video a week no matter what it was on, to just create.” yet I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Why? Perfectionism. I wanted my content to be perfect. The perfect idea, the perfect cinematography, and edit, along with the perfect thumbnail and title. There was only one problem. Perfection is unachievable. In fact, my desire for it held me back from even creating videos beyond my second. I couldn’t find that perfect idea. The idea which would explode in views, gain subscribers, or be able to be turned into a cinematic masterpiece just wasn’t there.
I’ve heard Chad Masters (A YouTuber, and co-host of the Prompt Us Podcast) that “Perfection is the enemy of Progress.” I would like to add to this that, “Perfection is the enemy of the very progress which draws us closer to it.” Often perfectionism is a crippling disease that prevents us from making any progress on something because we are afraid to start; when, if we just started we would be improving our skills, and be making progress towards our goals. In fact, the common saying goes, “Practice makes Perfect”.” However, if we allow the desire for the end product, or for the perfection of the product, to get in the way of starting, or working towards the goal of producing the product, it completely negates the practice aspect and we will most certainly never achieve perfection.
It is said Edison failed over 10,000 times when making the lightbulb. If he had insisted upon making the perfect bulb at the start, the creation of the lightbulb likely would have never happened. If you as a pianist insist upon playing a piece perfectly the first time (which I can guarantee you as a fellow musician is quite impossible) you will never be able to play it at all because at the start it will not be perfect. So why do we apply this standard of perfection to so many other things in life? Honestly, I’m not super sure, but I think I have come to some sort of a solution to this problem I’ve faced over the past few months.
The solution is, enjoy the journey. Life isn’t only about the achievements you achieve or the milestones you hit in your life. Your graduation only lasts a few hours, your wedding a day, your first child is only born once, your new home is only new until you move into it. Instead, life is about the day-to-day, all the small little moments that make up the whole picture. That cup of coffee you grabbed with a friend a few days ago, the time you spent with your family and friends enjoying their company, the slow work of editing a video, writing a book, taking countless photos. That is what life is made up of. The volume of day-to-day activities significantly outweighs the days and highlights of your life, so if you can only accept that perfection isn’t achievable, but progress most certainly is, and learn to find enjoyment in the progress itself you will have overcome perfectionism.
That’s all for my first blog post for the few who read this. I hope you enjoy!
TLDR: Perfection is the enemy of the very Progress which draws us closer to it. Instead, learn to enjoy the journey of progress, and of life, because that is what life is all about 🙂
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