Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good

 Great mentors and leaders have a profound impact on those they interact with. One such mentor and leader would use a phrase that has stayed with me. The phrase went as follows: “Don’t let perfection be the enemy of good”. When I first heard this phrase, I was confused. I had always strived for building the perfect product or analysis. This leader explained the goal of every project was to improve the client’s outcome, not produce the ideal solution. I caught hold of this vision and began to execute against it. My work improved. My focus improved. My outcomes were better. More importantly, the clients I served started to have better outcomes.

I began to see this phrase impact my life more than in the work sense. My thoughts began to turn to my addiction recovery journey. I found myself focusing on the perfect outcome. I was focused on that ‘perfect day’ when I had nailed the perfect outcome. I was so focused on finding the perfect solution that I didn’t allow myself to see the good improvements that I was making each day. For instance, there was a period in my addiction recovery when I read the Book of Mormon for 30 days straight. I even tracked my goals and wrote them down. I figured 30 straight days of reading would be a perfect outcome. On day 31, I relapsed because it wasn’t in the goal setting.

My sponsor suggested to me that I needed to identify the small wins each day. The small wins were not perfect by any means, but they were good! This attitude change helped me move from focusing on perfection to seeing the little improvements. Soon, the little improvements began to add up. The summation of the little improvements led to a wonderful journey of sobriety.

It wasn’t easy to change my mindset from perfection to good, but it definitely was an impactful one! It’s a mindset I would encourage anyone to do!