Perfection! It’s something we all want and have strived for at least once in our lives, but have you ever considered the meaning of the word? Perfection can be defined as:
“The quality or state of being perfect: such as freedom from fault or defect, maturity, an exemplification of supreme excellence and an unsurpassable degree of accuracy or excellence.”
The word perfection is often found on job descriptions. So, it should come as no surprise that as a profession we pride ourselves on our accuracy and attention to detail. Now accuracy is important, but it should not be considered as the complete absence of mistakes or errors (will a missing full stop really matter?).
When you think about perfection, what example immediately comes to mind? Is it receiving 100% on a test or exam? That is definitely my first thought. But what if we think about something more personal. What is your ‘perfect’ holiday? Mine is relaxing on a beach, with a cocktail in hand, sun shining and doing very little. For someone else, the perfect holiday could be exploring the local area or hiking in the mountains. As unique individuals, my idea of a perfect holiday might not be to your liking. But that doesn’t make it any less perfect to me.
Now, back to the exam example. If you are someone that struggles in exams and historically only ever gets marks of 50%, a perfect score for you could be 60% as that represents a huge improvement. Or maybe, you only need to get 55% to pass, a result of 60% then could be seen as perfect as you have exceeded the required mark and have passed. And going back to the above definition, an unsurpassable degree of excellence – if the pass mark is 55% and you don’t get anything else for any percentage point above this, then a mark of 55% is unsurpassable.
So what I’m saying is striving for perfection is a foolish endeavour. We will never achieve it. Why? Because we are human and as humans, we are fallible, mistakes do and will happen. If you must strive for perfection, I suggest you work towards maturity and set your own perfection standard. Be mature in your decision making and actions. If you do this, you'll still make a mistake or two, but you will react the right way and learn from the mistake.
For us Business Support Professionals we all need to become ‘recovering perfectionists’ (thanks Anel).
