Why embracing imperfection will help you achieve your goals faster

Why embracing imperfection will help you achieve your goals fasterWhy embracing imperfection will help you achieve your goals fasterIts easy to get carried away with the never-ending search for the perfect plan to achieve our goals.Whether were looking for the best diet plan to lose weight, the perfect idea for a book, or project, the best business strategies and so on, the pursuit of perfection can be exhilarating and addictive.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreBut does this focus on perfection lead to progress towards our goals? Or does it hold us back from achieving them?Lets get started.The power of imperfectionThe perfect is the enemy of the good- VoltaireIn the book,species Fear(audiobook), authors David Bayles and Ted Orland, describe the story of a ceramics teacher and the experiment with his students, which reveals surprising insights into why some people achieve their g oals, and others dont.Heres how the story goes (the original photography class story)1On the first day of the term, Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, stood in front of his film photography students, and announced that the class would be divided in two.On the left side of the studio, the first quantity group of students would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced. The greater the number of photos submitted by the student, the higher their grade.On the right side of the studio, the second quality group of students would be graded solely on the quality of work produced. Unlike the quantity group, these students were only required to submit one nearly perfect image, to get an A.At the end of the term, Uelsmann graded the students in both the quantity and quality group. The results were astonishing.The best photos were all produced by the first group being graded for quantity.As Uelsmann looked into the reasons for these unusual findings, the fact s emerged whilst the quantity group of students were busy taking photos, learning from their mistakes and improving the quality of their photos, the quality group sat around pondering on how to create the perfect picture, procrastinated on taking action, and in the end, produced mediocre photos.This story highlights the difference in goal achievement, depending on whether we focus on quantity or quality.As weve just seen, its thefocus on producing a large quantity of imperfect work, that ironically increases the quality of results, and ultimately improves the odds of success with our goals.Forget perfection, focus on putting in your repsIf you look for perfection, youll never be content.? Leo TolstoyWe live in a society that incessantly shoves images of perfection in our faces perfect bodies, perfect relationships, perfect businesses, perfect houses, clothes and cars, and so on. And over time, weve come to believe that anything less than the best is not good enough.But its imperfect ion, not perfection, that is the essential prerequisite for achieving our goals.When we obsessively focus on our goals and strive to achieve perfection with them, we throw ourselves into a downward spiral of low quality results, paralysis and eventually, failure.We avoid taking risks and exploring new ways to tackle familiar problems. And the longer we fail to reach these unrealistic standards of perfection, the more we lose confidence in our ability to achieve our goals, until one day, we quit.Its a deadly downward spiral you obsessively focus on the goal you pursue perfection you stall you quit.The truth is, the outcome of your goals is completely out of your hands.A better approach then, is to focus on what is in your control the quantity of work or reps you put forward towards our goals. By doing so, youll give yourself the freedom to create imperfect work, learn from your mistakes,improve, and make progress.The more you plant seeds of imperfection today, the more you will reap the rewards of success tomorrow.Mayo Oshin writes atMayoOshin.Com, where he shares the best practical ideas based on proven science and the habits of highly successful people for stress-free productivity and improved mental performance. To get these strategies to stop procrastinating, get more things by doing less and improve your focus,join his free weekly newsletter.A version of thisarticleoriginally appeared atmayooshin.comasWhy Embracing Imperfection Will Help You Achieve Your Goals FasterFOOTNOTESThe original story of Jerry Uelsmanns photography class, was adapted to a ceramics story version in the book, Art Fear.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people