“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”
Dr. Edwin Land
There is a myth. It’s called perfection. Many people chase it – many more don’t move because of it.
I am definitely not a perfectionist. I believe in excellence but perfection is a mirage. When you pursue excellence, you’re giving the best you can toward something, accepting it, and learning toward the next iteration. Perfection is the need for flawlessness and it can be haunting.
Here is why I pursue excellence – you’ll never be perfect in this life. Perfection is needing to get a 100%, every time. You can’t maintain that indefinitely. When you fall short of perfection, you’ll have the added angst of beating yourself up unfairly.
An important trait of excellence is iteration, starting in one place but improving upon it for the next round of efforts. After you’ve learned lessons and received feedback, you move on to the next iteration and so on. It’s never perfect and actually quite gritty but before long, you can look back and see you’ve made progress from where you’ve started. Oftentimes, it’s an education no class can teach you.
This is my work philosophy with Righteous Co. and in pursuit of excellence, I find myself at the start of iteration III. 2023 is going to be an excellent year. I’ve further refined/honed my mission and market. With that comes new offerings and in some cases, withdrawals. Each iteration up to this point has been hard-fought while working full-time and growing a family. We keep moving forward.
If you find yourself in the category of beating yourself up because you’ve fallen short or haven’t started because it just isn’t right yet, consider this other way. Just get started and do your best. Of course, you’ll fall. That’s part of it. It won’t be perfect and at times you’ll feel embarrassed, it’s ok. Because the next iteration will be better. You have something on the heart, don’t let perfection get in the way.
— Adam Jarosz
Founder/Leadership Coach
Righteous Co.
I love sharing insights and reflections for the faithfully productive – this article is from Righteous Co.’s weekly newsletter, The Climb. If you want to see content like this and more, subscribe here to get The Climb right in your email box, every Righteous Wednesday. You can also follow along on Instagram @righteousco.
adam jarosz 