A recent episode of the excellent “How to Take Over the World” podcast was a bit of a recap episode, with Ben’s “Top 10 Lessons from 100 Episodes“. It’s a great episode and well worth listening to, but one area that stood out to me were some of his thoughts that he shared about perfection.
Being a perfectionist can be problematic, but being almost a perfectionist can be good. More specifically, we should strive for perfection but be happy with however close we get.
He shared two quotes that emphasized this point. First, from legendary basketball coach John Wooden:
“Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility. Do the best you can under the conditions that exist. That is what counts.”
He also shared a bit from Benjamin Franklin:
“But on the whole, though I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavor, a better and happier man than I otherwise should have been had I not attempted it; as those who aim at perfect writing by imitating the engraved copies, their hand is mended by the endeavor, and is tolerable while it continues fair and legible”
I see this in my life with our house. We’re doing a lot of work on it right now to improve things for a possible sale or refinance, and the list of improvements that we’re making is quite large. The vision in our heads is of a “perfect” house, but we know that’s impossible. Still, that’s the vision we’re pushing toward and we’ll see how close we can get.
This kind of attitude can apply to your fitness and nutrition, education, or even things like improving your website or front lawn. Strive for perfection, do the best you can, and you’ll likely end up “happier than you otherwise should have been if you hadn’t attempted it”.
