Perfectionism isn’t always a positive attribute

Occasionally your enthusiasm to be all tickety-boo can be an impediment in your effectiveness at work. There has to a workable equilibrium between your desire for flawlessness and productivity. When we talk of career progress, it essentially boils down to splitting it into an excellent job and potentially satisfying work. If that be so, does your daily routine impel you to exert optimally? Are you a stickler and an uncompromising person always out to fine tune everything that you do?

There is no doubt that having lofty work values and ability to assign more than the stipulated time at work contributes to success. But an excessively obsessive disposition can hinder work to the extent that you could be precluded from producing good results.

      When It is a known fact that no one is perfect in this world. That is why pencils and erasers have an eternal relationship. Remember that if you have to hold out at everything, you will eventually walk away with a zero. Therefore, acknowledgement of the fact that you are not faultless will boost your self-confidence because perfection and perfectionism are moving targets that are bound to be missed. It is essential that you know when can perfectionism be upsetting; the following situations definitely can be particularly disconcerting.            

·  When your needless worries tend to get exposed: If you are obsessive with perfectionism, you are bound to be fearful and uneasy in your approach. Such baseless trepidation and consternation ab initio vis-à-vis your work will create doubts in your mind. You will get bogged down and foresee tribulations; and contest whether whatever you are doing is possible to complete or not. In other words, you would be stuck up and not move forward.

·  When postponements are routine outcomes:  You may envision spare time at your disposal in the future, but that is not the be all and end all of matters. It may appear sardonic alright, but it is a fact that the requirement to inject superfluous perfectionism in your endeavours leads to avoidable snags. Uncomplicated tasks prove to be knotty affairs because you would tend to wait for an opportune time to start or put it off for some other time just because you think that you will have a bagful of time subsequently.

·  When effectiveness is dented:  If you do not have proper aims and targets, there is likelihood of you succumbing to your craving to make your work flawless, even if it has been completed. This proclivity to make everything picture perfect is futile, notwithstanding that minor modifications can make it relatively seamless. The question therefore, if all this is necessary?

Having known situations and circumstances that can be disturbing, how do you control your instinct to be a perfectionist? Here is how you can do so:

·  Ensure that you are prolific & fruitful:  You simply cannot afford to mark time. You have to constantly be on rails; and this can be done if you set aims for yourself in the context of the tasks at hand and evolve an operating procedure for their accomplishment. The operating procedure that you adopt will entail converting your aims into lines of action that explicate methods to address all issues pertinent to tasks at hand.     

·  Understand the larger mosaic:  You could be executing a small project or a part of a big project. You must have a handle on the larger picture and various tinges and gradations that go into the making of it. But it is equally imperative that you do not become fixated with minutiae. To do so, you ought to maintain and adhere to a ‘to do list’. You should not get involved in a particular task greatly to the extent that you forget others on your list. It essentially implies concentrating on your daily work but simultaneously keeping tab on the wider facets of your assignment and the schedule of the future.

·  Impose deadlines & cut-off times:  If you seek to ensure that everything should be flawless, you will examine, evaluate and assess your work gravely over and over again. Resultantly, you will never be able to see it completed. To overcome this, you must impose deadlines for every task that you undertake. You may want to modify and alter many aspects, but the time limit that you decide for its completion has to be decided by you and adhered. 

There is nothing grossly wrong in erring. Who does not want his or her work to be sans any gaffe whatsoever? But if you have to err, you will. The truth is that acknowledging and learning from mistakes is more important. Therefore, let go of any fretfulness of failure that you may have. If you have the resolve to do well, there will be nothing to stop you from being successful in your career and life.