Excellence vs. Perfection: Ask These 2 Questions

I talk a lot about Social Excellence, being excellent, doing more, being more…

And I think it’s important to note that Excellence is NOT the same as Perfection.

Striving for perfection is not only unrealistic, it's a downright harmful mindset.

It promotes an unattainable goal. And, yes, it is unattainable because we are humans and are therefore inherently flawed and imperfect.

So we will ALWAYS fail in our efforts to achieve perfection. And that’s just bad goal setting. Being set up to fail?

Um, no thanks.

Excellence is about being the best version of yourself.

It’s a choice.

And the acknowledgement that not every moment of every day is going to be your best.

And that’s ok.

That’s an important difference:

Perfection frames anything less than perfect as failure.

That’s not healthy, and not realistic.

Excellence embraces differences and flaws and effort and growth and development.

Because those are the things that can make you the best, most authentic, most curious, most vulnerable, most successful, most generous, most fulfilled version of yourself.

So how can I focus on Excellence and let go of the desire for Perfection?

Try this:

At the end of the day, when you're replaying some conversation in your head, stressing about a situation in your life, worried about how something played out, questioning if you did a good enough job, etc...

Ask yourself 2 questions:

1. Did I do what I thought was right?

2. Did I do my best?

If the answer is NO to one or both questions - that’s ok.

This is your opportunity to reflect on why and make meaning from that experience.

Knowing why the answer is no can help us make different decisions moving forward.

That’s called LEARNING and GROWTH, and it can be uncomfortable, but it’s what moves us toward EXCELLENCE!

If you can honestly answer YES to both of those questions - awesome!

You chose Social Excellence today!

And that is all anyone can ask of us.

And all we can ask of ourselves.

So, Stay Excellent y'all!