Go for excellence not perfection

Excellence says 'good'. It's the act and output of excelling with good qualities in high degree. Yet some parts may not be excellent and these we hope will be the parts that don't really matter or those that can be improved over time.

My mother, Shirley, put a little sign in our family home years ago that read: ‘I may not be perfect, but parts of me are excellent.’ This is what it's about! Parts of our project, task or activity could well be admirable, impressive, grand and outstanding. And other parts...may be less than that.

Industries that have established 'Centres for Excellence' - in my local region - include Science, Child and family health, Disability, Railways, Youth mental health, and Automotive.

These sectors know that everything isn't perfect but parts of them are excellent; the parts that matter.

They want to improve and get better with both the parts that are already excellent and the parts that need to be a bit more excellent!  

Let me know what you think. Could you go for something like ‘iterative improvement’ or ‘progressive excellence’, rather than trying to make things perfect?

Worrying if you're doing it 'right'

Worrying if you're doing it 'right'. When we write something, share, do, show, try something new, we can be worried about whether we’re doing it ... ‘right’.

What is ‘right’ anyway? Is it about meeting a standard or expectation ... our standard or expectation? Or is it about meeting the standards and expectations of others?

It’s surely a conditioning from our upbringing or our school years where the reward and validation was for correct and right.

Our fear of getting it wrong can be powerful indeed: not wanting to look foolish, not wanting to be seen as unprofessional or not wanting our reputation to take a hit.

Rather, today, we can be encouraged and rewarded more by our effort, by trying and by getting out of inertia - that state of doing nothing or perhaps, nothing new.

If we stay safe and only do the things we do well - our party tricks - we don’t learn. And most of all we don’t adapt so we stay relevant, employable, progressing, doing meaningful things. Worry less about 'right' and focus more on getting going and improving or iterating over time.

Is there something you're worrying about doing 'right' at the moment? 

Oh the waste of unnecessary work

Oh, the waste of unnecessary work! We can be head down, diligently working away on a project or task and yet not know when it’s time to be done with it, to test it or share it or press 'go', launch or go live.

That's because it takes hindsight for us to make sense of things.

It could be that some of what we have done may have been a waste. Some of our time and effort may have been wasted. When we are deep in it we are too close and connected, too attached to it. We can be attached to the expectations we have or the standards we think we need to reach or the end results we think we are reaching for.

So how do we get hindsight sooner? How do you get yourself in a position where you can look back on what you’ve done ... sooner?

Put it out there, pilot, test and trial it. Even if it's not done yet. Then you’ll get feedback and insights and you’ll make sense of that. That’s hindsight.

Most people can press 'go' sooner on a project or task or piece of work. Sooner than they think. Are you holding back from pressing 'go'?

>> Where could you ‘go live’ with something today so the power of valuable hindsight arrives sooner?

An empty email box is the wrong measure of productivity

And likely a waste of time. I think it’s crazy that we would try to get to the bottom of our email inboxes and empty them as a priority.

Yes there are are fans of it, religious fanatics of getting to 'zero'. It’s an accomplishment indeed ... and damn it if we humans aren’t fired up, inspired and encouraged by progress we make. It makes us feel neat and tidy and organised and we know what's going on.

The control freak in us loves the control we gain over all that information, flicking it off to folders or ticking it off for filing or trash. But here's the question: how are you progressing on your goals, projects and initiatives? The stuff that really matters? I get it that an empty email inbox might seriously matter to you.

But might you possibly, maybe, potentially, be using the time and activity of "controlling" email as a distraction or procrastination from time spent on other more worthy, worthwhile and noble projects?

I'm not suggesting ignoring your email; but what's the measure of success with all your other projects?

Reply all with your thoughts! 😜 Are you a fan of living in your email inbox or are you facing out, making progress on other projects?

You could be working too long and hard on that thing

You could be working too long and hard on that thing. 

True. Shocking but true.

Working too hard for too long can lead us to burnout. The World Health Organisation recently categorized, called out and flagged that burnout is an actual thing, not just a cliched word or simple behaviour that could be remedied if we’d only manage our time better.

So why are we burning out? We’re working too long and too hard on things. We're often striving for some unattainable perfection, trying to make something better or neater or prettier because it’s 'not good enough' yet.

But hello! Effort doesn’t equal reward. Well, not equally anyway.

> Because something was hard work doesn't make it good.

> Because it took a long time doesn't make it better.

> Because we worked on it for hours and hours doesn't make the quality better, or necessarily reflect better on us.

Our relationship to time, effort and our own activity is distorted. Stop burning yourself out and start trying some of the newer ways of thinking and working that involve working in increments and iterations, and allowing imperfections.

Are you working long and hard on something at the moment that could fall into this category?