Tuesday, March 08, 2016
Perfectionism and burn-out are close friends – best avoid them
theconversation.com: It was Voltaire who said: “perfect is the enemy of the good” – and he should know. A strident critic of existential perfection, Voltaire spent much of his working life attacking the notion of a world imbued by flawless divinity.
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2 comments:
Yes, yes, yes! I've been a strong believer of this notion that "perfect is the enemy of the good" for quite a long time now. Perfection is not a concept that exists and to work your way towards that goal will only defeat you in the end. You will be constantly in conflict with your own worst enemy, yourself, with the fact that it's not "perfect." There is not such thing as perfection-- there is only such a thing as excellence. The huge difference between the two is that perfection is nonexistent and excellence is something that is existent. I've seen many friends meet their own demise in projects and in their personal lives by chasing perfection. I also think it's so interesting that we live in a world were perfection is often rewarded and seen as the only possible solution but it shouldn't be the case. Innovation is bred through a series of trial and error-- not an endless string of perfectionism. Burn out is also another very possible and dangerous result from being a perfectionist and I've also seen many friends of mine go down this route. I've seen friends become terribly jaded and unmotivated, chronically stressed and tired as a result of being a perfectionist. I also think that no one feels the crippling complications that come with being a perfectionist than a perfectionist themselves. I used to be a perfectionist but quickly smartened up and learned that it's not a sustainable mindset and that failure is okay. It's important to be ambitious and crave excellency, but steer clear from perfectionism because it's a beast that will bring you down and torture you not only emotionally, but physically as well.
This was a very good time for me to read this article. I feel like the last semester is what this article was talking about. I feel like our school, or maybe our society treats perfection as a virtue, exactly like this author said. You get so caught up in chasing an unattainable goal of perfections and then the next week, when you’re called to do it all again in a fresh new innovative way, nothing combs to mind. Both Susan and this article taught me that you have to focus on creating concepts that get everything you want to across to the audience, without going overboard. “Realistic but challenging goals” as this environment said. I will try to incorporate this into my lifestyle, but I know it will be difficult because in the art world there is such a push to do something never done before, to be as creative as you can be. I suppose I will spend the rest of my life trying to balance this.
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