“You are a perfectionist”. How often do you hear this phrase from your colleagues, friends, or relatives? While striving for perfection is admirable, it often can become a hinderance. A hinderance to our success. 

There is a difference between perfection and getting it right. Dwelling over an email, for example, erasing what you just typed, retyping something ten times, then taking a break to think whether or not you should send this message, all of this adds additional work hours and stress to your daily life. Instead of deciding that what you just typed is “good enough”, you waste precious time that could be used on something productive. What’s better, saving time and getting your message across or having a perfectly written email that may be confusing and too overthought?

Getting it right doesn’t need to be perfect. Getting it right meets the definition of “good enough” and in my field, getting it right is more important than getting it perfect. Using professional judgement, I can determine whether financial statements are complete and accurate. I do this without burning myself out by revisiting every single number ten times. I know when I get things right, it’s time to stop and move on to the next item on my list. 

So, if you ask me, no, I am not a perfectionist. I am however getting my work done right without constantly worrying about it being perfect.