Progress Towards Excellence, Not Perfection

By Lon W. Schiffbauer, BA, MBA, PhD, SPHR

In the movie The Last Samurai, Katsumoto, a samurai leader played by Ken Watanabe, tells Tom Cruises character that, “The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.”

When I first saw this movie I thought, “What are you talking about? They’re all perfect!” I mean, think about it: what’s perfect? Is it the size, the color, the shape, the scent? And are you really saying that vast majority of cherry blossoms gifted us by the heavens are inferior, unworthy specimens, and you’re the one who can make the final determination of perfection?

Well, as it turns out, this line was a setup for a payoff at the end of the movie in which Katsumoto realizes, in the last moments of his life, that, in fact, all cherry blossoms are perfect. So okay, I get it; it was part of the character’s story arch. Still, this idea of perfection can a pernicious thing, and we shouldn’t have to wait until we’re laying in a bloody field with our guts in our hands to realize this.

What Is “Perfect”?

Perfect means that something is as good as it can possibly be, that no matter what else may transpire, that which is perfect can never be any better than it is now.

Think about how ludicrous this idea is!

First, in what way is it the best it can possibly be? Is it a descriptor of quality? Affordability? Artistic merit? Refinement? Timeliness? Safety? Excitement? Utility? Scalability?

And who’s the judge of this ephemeral quality, the final arbiter of perfection? Can an imperfect human being observe and measure perfection? At the end of the day it all boils down to a subjective opinion, and while your experience, education, and tastes may make your opinion more informed than my own, it’s still just an opinion.

And then there’s the idea that something which is perfect is as good as it can possibly be. Does that mean that as the world and the people in it evolve and change, this one thing will forever be flawless? Something is “perfect” only as it relates to its context, yet the context is always changing. Just as in you can’t step in the same river twice, the conditions that define something as perfect are ever-changing. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, have a look at the performance of the gymnasts and figure skaters back in the 1952 Olympics in Oslo.

A Dangerous Idea

Perfection isn’t just a meaningless term that has managed to ensconce itself into our collective psyche, it’s also counterproductive. Perfectionism can create and prolong a sense of anxiety and stress in our lives. It predisposes us to a low sense of life satisfaction and a feeling of hopelessness—even to the point of brining on depression and thoughts of suicide.

What’s more, insisting on perfection denies us of our wins. If the only results that matter are “perfect” then we’ll always come up short. Consequently, we’ll never appreciate the progress we’ve made or the lessons we’ve learned along the way. We won’t be able to enjoys the small wins, those all-important steps forward that help us develop and progress in our chosen industry.

Replacing Perfection with Progress

So if we’re not shooting for perfection, what are we aiming for?

Progress—progress toward excellence in whatever endeavor motivates and inspires you.

When something is said to be excellent we mean to say that it is extremely good, even outstanding. This alone is a very high bar, but unlike perfection, excellence is completely attainable. It’s also contextual to a given set of standards. Excellence, as something that is outstanding, means that it is exceptional in relation to a given context, such as the esthetics of the day our current abilities. This is why the Olympic performances showcased in 1952 can considered excellent and outstanding, despite the fact that today a 10-year-old kid with three years of ice-skating lessons could more or less mirror these performances.

I’m talking through my hat, but you get my point.

It also means that, in theory, we can achieve excellence each and every day, so long as we are continuously improving upon our performance benchmarks. Now granted, we may be striving toward a level of excellence that is still outside our abilities, but this is where the idea of progress comes into play. So long as we are learning, working, and striving toward excellence, we are winning.

Beating the House

In statistics there’s a principle called regression toward the mean. The idea is that our performance tends to track to a mean—toward an average. Think of a standard bell curve. Regression toward the mean says that while, yes, we’re going to have some really good days and some really bad days, most of the time our performance will be, well, average—the middle of that bell curve.

If you can continuously improve and hone your craft, you’re beating the house; you’re pushing the bell curve to the right and even creating a wave along the performance axis, continuously striving for and progressing toward excellence.

So do yourself and those around you a favor and reframe your thinking around perfection. You’ll be happier, more productive, and take greater joy in your work.

Lon is an Associate Professor of Business Management at Salt Lake Community College and holds an MBA, a PhD, and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). In addition to his academic background, Lon spent close to 30 years working and consulting for such companies as FedEx, Intel, eBay, and PayPal, as well as a variety of small to mid-sized companies around the world.