5 Lessons I Learned When I Stopped Chasing Perfection

From the day we step into this world we are inspired to chase perfection. It is only in the later stages of life we come to the realization that there is no such thing as ‘Perfect’ in this world.

I wasted quite a lot of years in my life chasing that perfect job, and the perfect career. The only thing I realized after years of the chase was that there is no such thing as a perfect job or a perfect career.

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Perfection is a subjective term. What might sound perfect to you, might be completely nonsensical to someone else.

This is the reason I say - Stop Chasing Perfection, Start Pursuing Excellence Instead.

I employed this philosophy in life the day I stepped into entrepreneurship. And, it helped me reach greater heights of success. Here’s what happened when I stopped chasing perfection -

• I started feeling more in control

The chase to perfection is never-ending. It is like a whirlpool in which you get stuck forever and end up drowning.

There’s no end to perfection, and the chase continues forever. You are never in control of things because no matter how hard you try you will miss out on one thing or the other.

• I started feeling happier and grateful

The chase to perfection leaves you powerless. You are never satisfied with what you have achieved. Rather you are always running from one stage to the other, without even enjoying what you have in hand right now.

This throws the feeling of being happy and content out of the window. You are never satisfied with what you have, rather you are always jumping from one definition of perfect to the next and so on.

By not chasing perfection, you are giving yourself time to enjoy what you have achieved, and embrace the feeling of being happy and grateful in life!

• I started feeling more positive

Positivity comes in life when you acknowledge your achievements and accomplishments. Someone who keeps chasing perfection is never happy, as clearly indicated in the last post.

When you are happy, your mindset changes. You tend to look at everything as an achievement, and hence positivity pours into your life. Contrary to this, when you are always running after perfection, you will always find faults in your achievement and hence there is a lot of negativity around.

• I started achieving more

Perfection hurts because sometimes in life you set the benchmarks too high to achieve. There is no point in chasing benchmarks that are unachievable. You ought to create goals that are realistic, and hence can be achieved.

When you stop chasing the fallacy called perfection, you actually step into the real world with real expectations, which can be achieved.

• I started living my life fully

Perfectionism holds you hostage, and you are bound within the limitations of what you have designated as perfect. However, the one step to break the bondage of perfectionism opens an entirely new world.

You are no longer confined to those metrics which you deemed as perfect. You can now experiment, adapt and change your efforts to come up with something which seems the best fit within the present resources and circumstance.

Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection

It is better to pursue excellence and achieve it, rather than chasing perfectionism forever. What would you choose? A journey that’s never ending, or a destination which brings with it the feeling of contentment?

I chose the later one, and it helped me achieve success and happiness in life. In fact, it is this feeling of contentment that drives me every day to work collaboratively with my team at ProofHub, and deliver excellence!

About Author:

Sandeep Kashyap is the Founder and CEO of ProofHub — a leading project management and collaboration software. He’s one person always on a lookout for innovative ideas about filling the communication gap between groups, teams, and organizations. You’ll find him saying, “Let’s go!” instead of “Go!” many times a day. That’s what makes him write about leadership in a way people are inspired to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more.