Tag: perfection

In the media or life in general, there is an expectation for everyone to be flawless. On social media, everyone appears impeccable - but when one investigates deep down the vault of reality, life appears far from what we see on our screens or on the news stand.

So why do so many of us feel the need to drive in this lane towards perfection? Are these expectations doing us more harm than good?

I am inspired by the stories of past and present champions: Muhammad Ali, Pelé, Rod Laver, Steffi Graf and Stephanie Rice...the list goes on. They are motivated and they have a will to succeed that is admirable; they make die-hard sacrifices. In some instances I want to emulate them, in others I want to sit down with them to discover more because there is so much that isn’t being told that goes on behind the scenes.

I have interviewed several sporting champions and there are certain traits they have in common that determine their success, no matter what field they play on.

'Nothing would be done at all if a man waited until he could do it so well that noone could find a fault with it.' Cardinal Newman

The pursuit of perfection has been a struggle for me personally my entire life. What started out as a 'Virgo' trait, has led to a constant battle with striving for flawlessness and setting excessively high performance expectations of both myself and others. Going deeper then just a focus on personal life, my business has constantly been hindered by my inherent need for perfection, and I am not alone. There are many others out there that are exactly the same.

Entrepreneurs are renowned for certain types of behaviours including obsessive compulsive disorders, perfectionism, neuroticism - all often being the key reasons why things somethings don't go in the direction that they would have hoped. I call it self-sabotage, because noone is perfect and 80 percent is ok - yet trying telling that to my brain when it is on overload.

I learned earlier on in my business career that 80 percent had to do and by micro managing, nothing would ever get done, nor would the business grow. If only I could do everything myself, there would simply be no need for employees. Letting go and learning to adapt differently was singularly the best thing I could ever have done, and the only reason I have been able to grow an international business.

But from time to time, I fall prey to seeing things that are not done quite right, and having my little 'freak out' moment. 

When it comes to business, I desire the perfect marketing campaign, the perfect employee, and the perfect business - yet, that is impossible to achieve and you cannot place that kind of pressure and expectation on those around you - or you are bound to fail.

There is one thing that employees can learn from a Navy Seal that will be life changing - and that is to make your bed every morning to perfection. By completing this task, according to Navy Admiral William H. McRaven, who gave a talk to 8000 graduating students from the University of Texas last month, you would have completed the first task of the day.

I watched the video of his speech that clocked up 1.7 million views in 2 weeks on YouTube a few weeks ago and was inspired.