Perfect is the enemy of good
– Voltaire, Le meglio è l’inimico del bene
You have to start somewhere. You can’t begin at perfect and…be finished.
We have an idea of how we want to perform the task at hand. Of course, we want to do it great, yet great is not perfect.
When we’re going for perfect, we’ll always find something that doesn’t sit right, doesn’t sound smooth, or doesn’t look…well…perfect.
I’ve personally struggled with this for years, sitting on a pile of unfinished drafts for short stories, always rewriting and changing that style in hopes it will feel ‘perfect’ to publish. Spoiler: none have ever seen the light of day.
Sometime back though, a direct manager explained how perfect is the enemy of good, and how we must begin somewhere in order to improve, and it has stuck with me.
I approach things differently now.
First I want to get a draft on paper, whether copy, or a post, or whatever; I simply write it all, and then I end up cutting back. Moreover, I try to have a little more fun in the process, not just aiming for the end goal, so I improvise to great copy, which also lets me play around, trying to say things differently and switch it up.
I wouldn’t say the results have been perfect, but then again…completing the task at hand is better than not, so perhaps the outcome has been ‘perfect'”‘ after all.
Well, would you look at that?