Done is better than perfect

Hello friends!

Next month, I’m going to take an International Certification Course in Coaching. In Coaching, there is a phrase that is fantastic that says: “Better done than not done!” or, also, “Done is better than perfect”. In this text, I would like to talk to you about how I understand these phrases and how they can be useful to help us accomplish more.

See also – Difference between Clinical Psychology and Coaching

Well, many people have a personality trait that we can simply describe as perfectionism. For perfectionism, the best thing is to do it well, that is, we should only do it if we are going to do it perfectly. Although it is an interesting ideal, to always create with the best quality, this thought can lead us not to do it because, before starting to do it, we will assess whether we manage to do it “at the height”, at a level of excellence, with all the care and care that would be worthy of a conclusion impossible to be criticized.

Now, we don’t always have the time or resources to start at this “high level” of perfection right away. In fact, it would even be necessary to question what perfection is and for whom – and compared to whom – we are making this type of judgment.

For example, when I started this site I didn’t start it the way it is. Before it was a blog like thousands of others, with short texts and a common layout. If I were to wait to have the skills to build a professional website, if I were to wait to have the necessary resources to invest in a project like the current one, if I were to wait to write longer texts (and have hundreds of texts), it would never have taken the idea ahead.

I mean, I started and went ahead, even if it wasn’t exceptionally good at first. Rather than the idea of ​​perfectionism paralyzing me, I knew I had to start somewhere and I started where it was a viable path then. Over time, what wasn’t so “perfect” was fixed and, in fact, until today I’m constantly modifying here and there to make it even better.

After all, perfection is just an idea, a target, a goal. When we reach a point that we consider good, we will notice that there is still room for improvement and it is on this path that we build…

Before done, but not badly done

One issue we encounter as soon as we introduce the phrase “Done is better than perfect” is the interpretation that this would mean doing it anyway. It’s not there. What the Coaching thought wants to bring with this sentence is that we should not paralyze if we do not have all the necessary resources or capacities for execution.

I used the example of our website, but we could think of several products and services from large companies. If we go back to what Windows 95 was like, we’ll see that there was a lot of progress until Windows 7 and now Windows 8. Someone can criticize – and will criticize – the last version, but the point here is that not even a company It’s huge how Microsoft can create an ideal service right from the start.

As I said, and I’ll say it again, the ideal, the perfect, doesn’t even exist in the end because future developments will be necessary. What you shouldn’t do is be paralyzed by an imaginary barrier. It would be as if Microsoft didn’t even release its first product. If it hadn’t launched Basic and then made the incredible move of selling a system it didn’t have to IBM, DOS, it wouldn’t have made its founder the richest man in the world.

In the world of technology, the launch of products and services called Beta is frequent. With the speed of the market, companies launch a product X and, soon ahead, they already launch corrections, the product X Beta (or 2).

Let it be done, what to do later

It’s curious how leaving it for later is, to some extent, similar to not doing it at all. How many and how many times do we postpone a project, an idea, a plan, anyway, and this leaves everything so late that it never happens?

Similar to the idea of ​​perfection, in this case, procrastination – leaving it for later – means that the realization does not happen. And then we find all kinds of justifications like:

– “I’m waiting for the right moment”

– “I’m waiting for more conditions”

– “I am waiting for X so that I can do Y”…

Like, for example, “I’m waiting to have more time to start college”, “I’m waiting to have more money to invest”, “I’m waiting for a better time to finish” and so on.

Conclusion

One of the most sublime virtues we can develop is patience. But, in many cases, it is necessary to be impatient with flawed justifications. After all, waiting for the best moment, waiting to have more skills to do with perfection, waiting for this or that to do what can already be done, all of this is just a flawed justification…

What is certain is that time goes by… goes by… and when you see it, it’s gone. And many end up regretting what they didn’t do, what they could have done, the missed opportunities…

I’ve said it in other texts, but I think it’s always necessary to repeat: “What if so many years from now, you had started today?”

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