JKLTip Remember that no matter how far you’ve come, at every level, every one of us is always, forever a work in progress
When we fire things up for the first time, it’s helpful to use a mantra like “nothing special, nothing extra”. When we work on a goal, project, any pursuit really, it’s easy to get stuck in a perfectionist mindset. A vicious cycle of trying to control everything about a situation to make it just right before, or as we attempt it. In golf the opening tee shot is the most nerve wracking moment for many, so nervous that we need to start off just right. There are 18 times in a round that the tee shot gets us started and each of these times it’s best to take the approach “nothing special, nothing extra”. In these moments there actually is a large margin for error and if we use this mantra it will be just fine. This applies to every goal too; in fact the reason I thought of this was heading into the gym today, I did not want to go; I knew the work out wouldn’t be great, but it will always be good enough
It may be lost forever, but I’ll try and dig it up if I can. In my boy to teen years I built myself a poster that hung in my bedroom gym, in other words behind a mini bench press my grandfather got me and a set of dumbbells passed down from my father. It read “ Obsessed with Perfection”. At the time it seemed like a great way to employ a “shoot for the moon and land among the stars” mentality, but in hindsight a focus on perfection becomes a “shoot for the moon only if you are 100% sure you will make it” mentality. This is a dangerous, scary place to live and stunts growth in anything we would really love to achieve
Perfectionism in many ways is a form of mental self harm, the struggle is we don’t realize the toll that it’s taking. Perfectionism is a constant tension, a weight on our shoulders that is a pretty fascinating concept. It’s hard to argue that attempting to be perfect, preparing, studying, practicing are not all great things. The fact of the matter is that they could be, so long as they don’t get in the way. The main tipping point is whether or not we can do things and regardless of the results appreciate that we tried our best and it’s time to forget the rest. So long as it doesn’t prevent us from going with our gut and doing things we enjoy, then hard work and dedication are fine. In every pursuit, every effort repeat the phrase “nothing special, nothing extra”