Perfectionist

Are you a perfectionist! Are you able to maintain a timeline while completing the jobs assigned to you? Are you under stress while doing a job as you want? Being a perfectionist can be counterproductive. The habit can bring anxiety.

When beginning a project, don’t think to be perfect. It will slow down your project. Don’t be crazy about being a perfectionist.

What you want to achieve being perfectionist. Do you want people’s recognition? Are you trying to be a perfectionist for others? Do you want to be different from others?

If your answer to these questions is YES, you are heading towards disaster. You will lose focus. You will not be creative. Completion of a project in time is far more valuable than a delayed perfect project. Being not a perfectionist doesn’t mean you should not strive for excellence. Quality is paramount. Completion of the project with a reasonably accepted quality standard is the aim. The problem is an obsession with perfectionism.

Explaining with a simple example; In competitive exams like IAS, many candidates fall prey to perfectionist syndrome. Generally, you need to write 10 answers in 3 hours. You are trying to write perfect answers giving extra information for each answer. Obviously, you will need more time per answer. And you are under stress all the time. You will find you are able to answer only 7 questions instead of 10. The examiner was happy to give you more marks for each answer, say he gives 8 marks for each answer. The total score will be 56 marks. Now you see the other side, you write ten answers. The examiner gives 6 marks for each answer. The total score will be 60 marks. So, who is the winner? Non-perfectionist.

Perfectionism loses importance and relevance if the project or work is not done within the allotted timeline.

Perfectionism comes with practice.