Let me give you some advice based on the following. First of all, I like perfectionism. I think it’s great, because you know what comes out of world-class standards? World-class performance. I think that’s terrific. But how do you manage it, right? It also can sometimes be paralyzing, right?
So here’s my very practical advice. I believe in short-cycle perfectionism. Here’s what I mean. So if you’re sitting down to write a paragraph or do something else, I do believe that you should have as high standards as you can and work as hard as you can and be critical, etc., but what I mean by short-cycle perfectionism is that when that cycle is over, whatever you’ve got, you’ve got. You just tried really hard to write the best paragraph you can, but at the end of the day, you have to do something, as opposed to long-cycle perfectionism, which is you just expect it to be perfect over years, and so you’re just never going to be satisfied. I believe in having this perfectionistic mindset in the short term.
As I’m speaking to you, I’m speaking to myself, because this is the advice that I need to hear and to take, but I do believe if you’re doing an assignment, right, or you’re doing a problem set for a professor, or you’re sitting in a lecture, you should say, “Today, I’m going to be as best as I can be, I’m going to have high standards,” but the idea is that the timeframe is manageable, right? I’m going to do as as well as I can do this Thursday night, right, and then you’ll do however you do and Thursday night will be over and then we’ll do Friday, etc. I think for me, if I can keep in mind a short-cycle perfectionism, I can embrace the excellence that I really do care about but also keep going, have the stamina and be happy, which I also want to be.
https://www.deseret.com/2023/3/10/23629499/advice-from-perfectionist-angela-duckworth-grit
No comments:
Post a Comment