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Hi ,
Hope you're having a lovely week so far.
2 months of 2022 have already gone by! Crazy how quick time passes.
The reason time seems to pass by faster as we age is because we stop having new life experiences.
As children every day is filled with curiosities. Each day is a new adventure with new learnings.
When we have new experiences, our brain creates checkpoints for us to revisit.
As we grow older we have fewer and fewer new experiences. Every day is monotonous just like the day before.
This means the checkpoints get more and more spaced apart. And everything in between becomes a blur.
The lesson here?
If you wish for time to slow down. Seek out new experiences everyday. Learn something new. Talk to new people.
Break the monotone. Disrupt the pattern.
Anyway. I wanted to talk a bit about my struggle with perfectionism and how I have been coping with it.
I don't like when things are just good enough. I want them to be perfect.
This is a double-edged sword. It's a great trait to have if I'm working on some project requiring micro-precision.
But I am no nano-scientist.
In the real world, what matters more is imperfect execution.
We only improve when we give ourselves the permission to make mistakes during the process.
If you go listen to the first episode of the podcast and the latest one. You will sense the difference.
The first one took me 3 days to ideate, script, edit and publish.
The latest one took me 90 minutes from start to finish.
If I was still the Ajitesh who published Episode 01. I'd have gone through the recording multiple times, painstakingly trimmed out every unwanted noise, and perhaps even re-recorded parts I thought needed fine-tuning.
But now I hit record just once. And edit at one go. And the quality is pretty much the same.
In some ways better. Because it is more authentic.
Do I still struggle with perfectionism? Yes. It's a constant battle.
Because that is my default way of thinking.
What has helped is surrounding myself with people who believe in imperfect execution. I have found these people in books, through social media and through other forms of content.
You may be struggling with something similar when it comes to your lifestyle.
Maybe it is with exercise. Maybe it is with work.
Know that you aren't alone because a lot of us feel this way.
But ask yourself. Is your perfectionism serving you or holding you back?
Because I realised mine was holding me back. And I have actively worked against it despite the discomfort.
I'd like to close this mail with an anecdote I heard somewhere:
A pottery teacher split his class into 2 groups for the final exam.
The students in the first group had the task to create one project each. They had to make the best sculpture they could. They had one week to modify it, fine tune it and perfect it.
The students in Group 2 were asked to create as many projects as they'd like. They could experiment, let their imaginations run wild, and play with materials. At the end of the week, they would submit the project they thought was best.
When it came to the final results. The best projects were all from the students in Group 2.
While the Group 1 students had spent an entire week trying to perfect one piece of work.
The Group 2 students improved with every piece and by the end of the week produced work that was of much superior quality.
This is a lesson on perfectionism.
Have a great week ahead.
If you haven't already, listen to the latest episode of the podcast:
17 - How to Overcome Gym Intimidation
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