Practicing imperfectionism

Reflecting on my life, one of the biggest obstacles to progress has been my desire to do everything perfectly. That doesn’t work. That’s why I’m practising being an imperfectionist.

The idea of being an imperfectionist comes from Ray Dalio in his book “Principles for Life and Work” — introduced to me by the ever-insightful Nick Crocker at Blackbird. Dalio reminds us that “perfectionists spend too much time on little differences at the margins at the expense of the important things,” and spend so much trying to make things perfect that they miss the opportunity, almost inevitably end up with imperfection anyway, and often end up delivering that imperfection so late that it’s almost useless.

I recognize that this has been a pattern in my own life — and even this blog is an example of that. For at least 3 years I’ve been wanting to start writing, but I’ve wanted to have the perfect title first, the perfect theme, the perfect first article, the perfect timing to publish it, and on and on and on. That didn’t work. Instead, the result of my perfectionism was no result. By wanting to produce the perfect thing I produced nothing — zero value to myself or others.

The good news for me, and for all of us, is that t=0 (the time is now) always. So today, beginning with this imperfect post, I’m starting to practice imperfectionism. I hope you’ll join me.