Is it fair to laugh and point fingers at someone that brags or is torn a part due to a burning itch to call themselves a perfectionist? Are they physically aware of what outsiders see, feel and hear?
Let’s play on equal sides of the field; the first move is to eliminate what we assume a perfectionist is or isn’t. Dictionary.com paints the best picture: A person who is displeased by anything that doesn’t live up to their high standards.
Greater Good The Science of Life unveils the image outsiders experience; a steady pace of discontent caused by a never ending conclusion that can never be met because a perfectionist always believes they could’ve done better.
Know anybody like this?
It’s ok to look in the mirror because life instantly becomes more fun when the color in the eyes staring back are fired up and ready to rip into the first soul planning a verbal attack.
Perfectionists are positively protective for a purpose; if anything is going to get done, it has to be right so a perfectionist chooses to stick their neck out first. To most bosses and coworkers we like this person! There can be no glory if someone’s not willing to showoff some guts. But do perfectionists truly play this way?
Dig a little deeper into the skin of perfectionism and taste the true person; perfectionists aren’t go getters. The majority of all kids and career addicted adults fail to achieve results because of a fear of failure. Taking risks while embracing new challenges is a no show in the performance department because the payoff is usually disgust in one’s self.
The true face of perfectionism has nothing to do with meeting high standards because getting past the mistakes devastates every reason to think you’ve got permission to move forward.
Artist Way Author Julia Cameron invites perfectionists to a place of peace by allowing them to understand the difference between the end results. Not to say I’m a perfectionist but in a radio station commercial production room we’ve got the power to hit undo. Read a 30 second commercial then tap undo. Do it again…hit undo.
Writers will do a page then do the page again, again then again. My book Halloween 78 waited thirty one years to be published because the assumed perfectionist in me wanted to adopt new levels of word play. I really screwed things up when the artist within elected to go Shakespeare leaving nothing for the common person to understand. I wanted to write the perfect book to be read while sitting on the toilet. Read one page only… but even I began to get lost. That spelled out another re-write.
By identifying a perfectionist’s true colors which is to settle more than to gain ground…your heart begins to open to newer shades of blue, red and green.
Perfectionism is a disease just as much as depression is more than just a mood. Learn to identify each before there’s unrest and peace shall blossom in places along the highway.
Seth Godin of Tribes fame is driven to identify why there are so many followers and not leaders in this country. We settle. Lord have mercy thank God in Heaven my Grandparents fresh from the shores of Norway and Germany didn’t hit American dirt and say, “Where’s the nearest Starbucks…Momma needs a caffeine buzz.”
Seth explains people settle because there are way too many competing priorities. Heretics don’t settle; heretics hold opinions that aren’t generally accepted.
Two different people perfectionist versus heretic and both are found in the footprints of most company leaders attempting to run success through the veins of their modern business.
Seth writes: Managers who are stuck, who compromise to keep things silent and who battle bureaucracy everyday end up settling. What else can they do? The people above them are playing the same game!
Taken straight from the strings that bind the pages of a book together: The art of leadership is understanding what you can’t compromise on.
How have I been able to publish six books? By grasping the idea that I should’ve been doing it while still in high school. Rather than bust my a** trying to be the authors that inspired me to move a rock…it’s become my way of life to build the tools to teach others how to touch a stone.
I wrote music to get my words into the hearts of a passerby. I got into radio because judgment day in the music department was too harsh to digest. A single seven second break over a song has the power to make or break a listener’s decision to feel incredible or go about their numb way. I still haven’t reached the perfectionists acceptance…but there have been days that the writer has received letters from India, Russia and Spain that softly whispering, “Do you live my life? You’ve said something that speaks directly to me.”
Perfectionist versus heretic…I’ll never invite someone to lower their standard but I’ll spend whatever life I’ve got available to get you to believe in yourself a little more than yesterday. Now share it with the person next to you.
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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