The Tyranny of Perfectionism and Utopianism
Why these two seemingly good traits might be silently stifling progress and killing you inside
I have to admit i’m a perfectionist for some things, others not so much but anything i’m passionate about, I MUST do well and I won’t accept anything less from myself. I.e the eye twitch goes out of control unless I reach a certain level of okayness that satisfies the inner frustrations, that will scream at me if I do any less.
Genetics
I blame my mother's side of the family for it! I’s rife throughout that side of the family and for the most part it has served us all fairly well over generations.
On the other side of the fence, my fathers side, there’s a more… shall we say near enough is good enough approach to things. I grew up with a motor mechanic father who could fix anything. When it came to customer cars he was meticulous with the repairs and was one of the old school tear down an engine or transmission and rebuild it bottom up with exact tolerances down the thou’s.
However, when it came to general household repairs and his own cars (typical mechanic cars), let’s just say zip ties and racing tape were aplenty in the shed and could fix almost anything around the house! The old Aussie saying “she’ll be right mate” was a well used phrase in our household.
Reflection
Reaching the age I am, reflection on what has worked for me and what I could’ve done differently over my career has cropped up from time to time recently.
What have I realised? In the data and tech world, while striving for perfection and a utopian state is commendable and is a good state to have as a goal. The reality is, there is no such thing as the ultimate utopian state.
It’s a myth!
Now before you hit the keyboards and fire off your objections, let me explain.
We conjure up a utopian state in our minds. It is based on where we’re at today and where we think we need to get to, in order for life to be this ultimate blissful state. We put our heads down and work hard to reach this utopian state.
The problem is, as we work hard and progress towards this utopia, our expectations are constantly reset. Today becomes the new baseline of minimum expectation and our preconceived utopian state is extended out to the next set of requirements we conjure up in our heads.
The fact is we’ve reached our initial utopian state a thousand times over, we just haven’t realised it because we’re on a constant path of unachievable and immeasurable achievement. There is always something better ahead.
In my profession, I am seeing this goal becoming more and more prevalent as tech advances.
If only we had this tool in our ecosystem or our data was this much more mature, then we’d be able to do things so much better and life would be easier.
It’s a much more common cry I hear nowadays than I did 25 years ago. Let’s face it, 25 years ago we were happy if we were able to log in and weren’t getting the MS blue screen of death every time we tried to hide that pesky Windows paperclip (the Gen Xers amongst us will remember it!).
I’m going to say something controversial… Your life is already easier! If you don’t have to chisel words into stone, while hunting for a beast to feed the family like our ancestors had to, you’re doing ok!
Obstruction
While striving for a utopian state undoubtedly drives innovation, especially in the tech industry, it can also have the opposite effect when trying to achieve it to the level of perfection we think needs to be achieved.
Time spent way down deep in the weeds trying to get something exactly right slows you down, distracts you from delivering and is actually preventing you from achieving the utopian satisfaction you sought to achieve.
Sometimes the near enough is good enough or “she’ll be right mate” approach is all that is needed to deliver a piece of work satisfactorily. Let’s not mistake this for thinking sloppiness and delivery full of mistakes is acceptable though! There’s a distinct difference!
Personal Impact
Perhaps the most negative impact perfectionism can have is on yourself. The relentless inner drive required to appease your need to produce perfection has profound impacts to your health. Adrenal system impacts from being in a constant state of stress for prolonged periods (i.e years) are well documented. Burnout is also a real phenomenon and us perfectionists are highly prone to suffering from it.
Not to mention the mental health impacts of constantly striving for a utopian state that is simply unachievable. We must balance our perfectionism with a level of satisfaction for achieving near perfection, or you may find yourself in a state of never experiencing any level of job satisfaction.
I’m not a medical professional so I won’t over step my boundaries here.
Be Adaptable
The best way i’ve found to balance my perfectionist traits while delivering quality work in a timely manner, and also achieving satisfaction, is adapting my expectations and my vision of my utopian state.
Stop. Take check of where you’re at. Ask yourself; are you making sufficient progress for the time being spent? Are you biting off more than you can chew and need to reassess the end goal? Is there a lesser utopian state that will deliver what’s needed and appease your inner perfectionism?
The most successful strategy i’ve found is taking a step back and taking satisfaction out of achieving the smaller milestones while working towards my perceived utopian state.
There’s also a common saying “stop and smell the roses”. Take a look at the world around you and go for a walk. Then come back and realise what you’ve achieved for the day and acknowledge how that is progress from yesterday.
Even if you’ve spent all day debugging something you broke. Rather than viewing it as a negative, adapt your thinking. The work you’ve done was a learning experience that has progressed your knowledge and moved you further towards your perceived utopian state.
Contentment
The moral to my story is seek contentment in what you do and don’t stress yourself out with needless focus on an unachievable utopian state. The chalk and cheese of perfectionist vs near enough is good enough in my own family tree is testament.
The near enough’s are content, they deliver, they achieve things. They are less “driven” and perhaps don’t subscribe to the need to be constantly progressing like a perfectionist utopian does. Is that a bad thing? not for them, they’re happy!
The perfectionist utopians also achieve things and perhaps strive for greater things, which is an important part of world progress. However, there’s a higher risk of not being content, especially in your job. There’s a happy balance in the middle that you need to find.
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