You can’t be perfect. I have been dealing with this for a long time, and still, I am coming to terms with this. I habitually make elaborate plans for how I want to approach a particular task. These plans are great, and their result is potentially awesome. I say “potentially” because I tend not to do anything about it. This fact has been pointed out repeatedly to me. Case and point, I purchased this domain in January 2018, but I have started blogging daily on it this year even though I have a long list of blogging topics. I am writing about it today because I have only recently understood why I have this tendency. The answer is… being a perfectionist. The desire to do everything perfectly is getting in the way of actually doing things.
What is the Perfection Gap?
In a single sentence, when my mind goes, I need to figure out the best way of doing something before I start doing it. It is the urge to dot all the Is and cross all the Ts before you begin writing (that’s eloquent, isn’t it?).
It is surprising how easy it is to get trapped in the perfection gap. In August 2018, I quit my job and wanted to work on something for myself. I went into research mode, trying to figure out the best pitch and services to be offered to my clients. I didn’t approach any clients for four months. Why? I wanted to avoid committing any mistakes when dealing with a potential client. The fear of failure led me into the perfection gap, and I never started.
Even now, whenever I want to do a YouTube video, my first reaction is that I don’t have what I need to shoot an awesome video. As easy as it is to fall into the perfection gap, it isn’t easy to get out of it. It becomes more arduous the longer you are stuck in it. There is a lot of resistance from within; your mind throws excuses for postponing things because it will be better if you wait. I will agree if you take the time to learn some skills. Otherwise, you are just sitting around, wasting valuable time.
Why Do We Need to Be Perfect?
If you go to YouTube and start watching your favorite channel. You will find that the video has fantastic quality. You begin to think, “I want to make videos like this.” When you look up how to do that, you will realize you need to be better at making such videos in terms of content and look. The problem is that our inspiration comes from the latest video, which results from many takes and retakes.
The creators of such YouTube videos have had some experience with the channel. They have been creating videos for quite some time. Now they have got the hang of what they need to do to improve. The first draft is never perfect. We want to hit that level from the beginning, which is unrealistic.
What Do You Need to Do?
Once I explored a YouTube channel so much, I watched almost all of their videos. I noticed the difference between older and newer videos. The animations and analysis had improved, and the person shooting the video had gathered more knowledge with time. He had diversified in terms of the videos he was putting out.
Here’s what you need to do. Go to the profile of a creator you follow and look at the oldest post. No matter what, you will notice the following things:
- The content is similar in a particular direction
- The look and feel of it would not be as good as it is today
- The insights being offered are not as good as they are now
Here’s the thing, everyone has to start somewhere. At some point, you have to say to yourself, enough studying, enough theory, let’s do something. If you are still not convinced, let’s say you had figured out the perfect recipe for success, would you not alter it if circumstances change? Will you be so stubborn and not adopt? Let’s get my hands dirty.
Conclusion
The perfection gap is genuine. It is impossible to figure anything out by sitting on the sidelines. You have to get on the field and start playing. You must go out there and do your share of trial and error to figure out what works for you. What you will find is what works then only works for a while.
You can’t be perfect, and the good news is you don’t have to be perfect. The perfection gap will always exist; that ensures you can spend your life pursuing a particular thing. The key is to start now and close the perfection gap as best as possible.