Phillips Santa“I don’t look perfect in this outfit so I’m going to duck out of the job interview.”

When did anyone ever look perfect in any outfit, at least in their own eyes?

“I’m scared my presentation will suck because it’s not perfect.”

It may not be perfect, but did you practice to ensure is it good enough to carry your message across?

“I can’t submit this guest blog post, even though I know it’s a great opportunity, because it’s not perfect.”

I hate to break it to you, but the perfect blogger hasn’t been born. Yet.

“I’m not going to bid on that RFP because I don’t have a perfect team in place.”

Why not worry about the perfect team after you win the business… which you won’t if you don’t bid on it?

“I can’t launch my newsletter until my content is perfect.”

It’s not “perfect” content you’re worried about. It’s content. Period.

Perfect is as perfect does

We’ve been taught that a state of perfection is highly desirable. That if something is not perfect, it’s not worth doing. And there’s certainly nothing wrong with aspiring towards perfection. Perfection is, after all, a goddess.

But when it stops us, you, me, from trying, submitting, applying, it’s a demon.

Because 99% of the time, work that is “good enough” will do.

Mind you, that’s when we’ve tried really hard to put the right things in place, and have expended as much effort as we can – given our current circumstances – to make sure we’ve done a good job. If we’re going to half-a$$ it, that’s a different story.

But if we’ve tried our best, who cares if it’s perfect?

It just has to be good enough.

I took this photo of a “Phillips Santa” while I was in Kolkata over the holidays. Does he look like the perfect Santa to you? No. But he was good enough for the job.