One of my idols, Vince Lombardi, was fond of saying: “Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.” However, another one of his famous quotes was: “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” Therefore, it is obvious that Lombardi himself is not perfect in that he states how to become perfect on one quote and then contradicts himself on another quote in that the closest you can get to perfection is actually, ‘excellence’.
There are some very big consequences of chasing perfection including:
- Missing opportunities. How many times have we all gotten into the vicious circle of waiting till something is ‘perfect’ before we actually pull the trigger and just ‘do it’? There is never the ‘perfect’ time, place or person. However, there may be an impeccable time, the excellent place and the ideal person. If you wait too long, your competition will swoop in to take the opportunity away from you. The client may have settled for an inferior product or service compared to yours, but at least they got something to take care of their immediate needs. The unfortunate part is that they did not get it from you because you were waiting for it to be ‘perfect’. More alarming, your prospect is now building a relationship with your competitor instead of you. In other words, ‘sometimes. good enough is just that, good enough.’
- Greater disappointment. If we set our expectations that everything will be ‘perfect’ are we not, in fact, setting up ourselves for failure? For example: if we feel that we have the ‘perfect’ presentation, will we be prepared for any stalls or objections? Why would we prepare for those when we have the ‘perfect’ presentation? Here is a reason, the prospect will be bringing up stalls and objections. They always do. It is your preparation on how to handle them that separate the business person from the business professional, not your so called, ‘perfect’ presentation.
- Self-esteem. Perfectionists enjoy and relish in positive events and feedback, but do not cope well with negative comments or events directed at them. The thought pattern becomes: “How can you possibly say that? After all, I’m perfect!” The mindset of being ‘perfect’ allows the ego to run rampant, which in business, is something that will affect your bottom line, in a negative way, quicker than anything else that you can do. Well, maybe with the exception of coming out with a complete lie or fabrication which many psychologists state is the ego going amok. An out of control ego will quickly move you from being assertive and completely acceptable to being aggressive and not acceptable at all.
Stop chasing the unattainable perfection. Instead, as my motto goes: “If you are no better tomorrow than you were yesterday, then you have wasted today.” Go for excellence and being better.
Get ready for your best tomorrow by not wasting today and register for The Action Suite. This is where the talking stops and the doing gets done. We develop tools, as well as knowledge and know-how to implement immediately into your business, in order for you take those extra steps towards the next level towards your own personal success.