Perfection is a Sham
- Delayed progress
- Analysis paralysis
- Decision fatigue
- Brain rot
- Sunk cost
- The elephant that forgot it could move
- Lost motivation
- Burnout
- Discontentment
“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
— Parkinson’s Law, C. Northcote Parkinson (1955)
And still, perfection is sought.
Craved. Chased. Worshipped.
Why?
Because perfection is a shield.
A shield against criticism.
A way to avoid failure.
A distraction from fear.
A justification to not even begin —
because unless it’s perfect, why try at all?
So we choose nothing over something.
Abandon the imperfect.
Delay the in-progress.
Until nothing is done, and everything remains untouched.
But the critics don’t disappear.
The fear doesn’t vanish.
The pressure only builds.
The burnout deepens.
And perfection?
It becomes more than a standard.
It becomes a mindset.
A habit.
A spiraling rut that’s hard to escape.
The Way Out
It takes time. And practice.
Not to lower the bar —
but to release yourself from holding everything to it.
Not to self - Start by:
- Doing things without holding them against yourself
- Making progress without demanding completion
- Being okay with the incomplete, when completeness isn’t needed
- Prioritizing what’s necessary — not what perfection demands
- Being able to stop logically, and pick it up later if it matters
This isn’t mediocrity.
This is momentum.
This is reclaiming the joy of doing — without the burden of flawless.
Because done imperfectly moves you forward.
Perfect but undone doesn’t.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena,
whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;
who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again…
but who does actually strive to do the deeds;
who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;
who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement,
and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly…”
— Theodore Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic (1910)
(Also quoted in Who Will Cry When You Die? by Robin Sharma)