Connection Not Perfection

I saw this and thought, yes, you are speaking to me! It has taken me a VERY long time (close to 40 years, I started feeling the need to be perfect at around age 4) to be okay with not being perfect. I have three core values, and coming it at numero uno is PEOPLE FIRST. Part of this value is the desire to meaningfully connect with others. It is why I love the work that I do. It is more important to me to connect, than to be perfect. I don’t always say the right thing, actually a lot time I don’t…but my intention is to be genuine, to be authentic. To relate.

Another reason this speaks to me, is I observe the desire for perfection in the workplace gets in the way of progress. Working endlessly to get the deliverable to be perfect. News flash, it will never be perfect to all your stakeholders. Collaboration is key, and like you everyone else wants to put their stamp on it too. We do need to find the good enough. Or as I like to say “is the juice worth the squeeze”. Is the amount of effort you are putting into something to get to a place worthy of the masses, good enough to move forward. Is what you are trying to elicit from others coming through or you are overly concerned about the perfect shade of blue to express yourself? How much is too much? Are you connecting on the message or over-engineering it because of fear? I challenge you to ask yourself for every deliverable, every presentation; what is the feeling I am trying to elicit with this piece of work? Am I there? Or will an extra 20 hours of agony make it that much better? It is also how I feel about wine. Is the $80 bottle of wine 4 times better than the $20? 9 out of 10 times the answer is nope.

Being okay with the imperfection and striving for connection is also a reason why I don’t have anyone proof-read my blogs before I hit publish. I am ok with a typo, a grammatical error, or whatever signifies imperfection. If a reader is going to be stuck on that, then they probably are not the person I am looking to connect with. You feel me?

“Communication is merely an exchange of information, but connection is an exchange of our humanity.” ~ Sean Stephenson, Get Off Your “But”