Perfectionism

We are taught as we grow that excellence is a good thing. We are also taught that working as hard as possible to achieve your goals is a good thing. Unfortunately in our efforts to create our dream and perform to the best of our abilities we fall into the trap of trying to be perfect.

What you may not realize though is that trying to be perfect can actually hinder your chances of being excellent.

There is an ugly flip side that comes with the pursuit of perfection: a fear of failure, or fear of making a mistake. These fears keep a lot of people from trying something different or learning a new skill. They often don't even get started because they want everything perfectly ready in order to start.

Then even if they could start, they'd rather not try than go through the anguish of not doing it perfectly. The perfectionist likes to stick with things he (or she) knows that he can do.

To succeed at anything new you have to get out of your comfort zone. You need to learn, and expand your world by growing in knowledge, skills and personal attributes. Perfectionism limits your growth, and takes away your chances of finding your success, and erases your opportunities for even testing the water.

That's why your physical foundation is so critical. It gives you the confidence and support you need to take those chances, to recover from mistakes, and test the limits of possibility. You don't have to be anywhere near perfect at any time. Just get something going that is leading to your dreams and work at it from the increasing excellence angle. Excellence comes with practice and perseverance and a lot of imperfect mistakes and failures along the way.

Just get going and aim for excellent improvement.