Fuck Perfectionism
While I was applying for the MAS Scholarship recently, I missed the deadline because I wanted to be absolutely sure that my application essay was as perfect as it could possibly be.
To be honest, It was probably good enough to warrant the scholarship, let alone an interview.
Just kidding, I need to show some humility.
But the point I’m trying to make goes beyond just learning to adhere to simple deadline. I think that as perfectionists, we always want to make sure that whatever we put our stamp on is perfect. It has to be without flaws so that no one can criticise us for anything we did.
That becomes dangerous because if we never make any mistakes, then we’ll never learn how to do things better. Some of the most useful inventions came about as a result of mistakes and to a certain degree slopines.
Penicillin, for instance, was invented when Alexander Fleming decided to say fuck it, to everything and go on Vacation. When he returned, he realised that one of the petri dishes he had left around had an empty spot on it devoid of all bacteria.
To his surprise, it turned out that the mold had killed the bacteria. Upon further analysis, they managed to identify the antibiotic, Penicillin. That single discovery has saved countless lives today and opened the doors to decades of research which transformed medical technology as we know it today.
That’s definitely not an isolated incident too.
Most of life is best lived through with a certain degree of experimentation. If you don’t experiment, if you don’t try, how can you live a life that excites you every day?
You need to learn to keep pushing that comfort zone and realise that getting someone done beats thinking about getting sometime done.
As Ramit Sethi likes to say, 70% of the way is a lot better than 0% of the way.
So cast aside your worries about not producing perfect work and spend your day instead thinking about how you can get things done. Most of your fears live in your head and won’t come true anyway.
So live life a bit more wildly and make some memories. Take a few more chances and who knows, maybe even you’ll surprise yourself.
After all, you only 100% miss the shots you never take.
CALL TO ACTION
If you want to become the confident, outstanding student who attracts the most amazing peers to you, so you can enjoy immersive social relationships and have complete confidence, freedom and joy in your academic and social life, then join my private Facebook Group. Inside, you’ll get my free Academic Masterclass course that will help you figure out how to choose your university degree and become a game-changing individual who communicates your way to excellence, as well as exclusive bonuses and updates on coaching.
