After some thought I am not so sure perfection is the right goal. Lets look at the 1972 Miami Dolphins. This team is famous for being undefeated, superbowl and all. It would be easy to call this team perfect, but they weren't! Their opponents moved the ball forward and even scored against them! In fact in game three, verses the Vikings, they only won by two points! The team even trailed in a few games. It seems to me true perfection would require this team to not allow ANY points or even yards gained by each and every opponent. No, this team wasn't perfect, but they didn't let the little things get in the way of the ultimate goal; WIN EVERY GAME!
Does this seem like an unrealistic definition of perfect? The answer is NO!!!! Perfection is meant to be an unreasonable ideal! In fact if you reach perfection you are probably not challenging yourself enough. I am not discounting the 72' Dolphins. What they did was, remains, and will always be, an incredible accomplishment but it was not perfection. It was a season of excellence.
When one strives to be perfect in school, career, athletics, or anything really, problems and issues will arise, and someone seeking perfection is at much greater risk of anxiety when the litle things prevent perfection. This anxiety causes one to try to eliminate the little problems and issues that arise and we lose sight of the overall goal. Yes the overall may be meant, but it is meant with anxiety, stress, burnout, and you will likely dissatisfy one of more people with your anxiousness and stress.
Now lets look at excellence. Striving for excellence does not require everything go perfect! Striving for excellence allows one to tackle the issues and problems that will come with little stress and worry, because their is no unrealistic ideal weighing on their own expectations, thus one remains focused on the most important parts and, of course, the big picture.
Lets go back to football. If a Quarterback is seeking perfection, but throws an interception, that one mistake could cripple the players focus because he has a perfection ideal that has just been broken. The player runs the risk of getting too upset about one mistake, thus hampering his ability to help his team recover from his error. However, if the same player is focused on excellence, relieving the stress of the ideal, he can stay focused on the new task and help his teammates prevent the opposing player from advancing down the field.
I do not write this post to say that school or other related areas shouldn't be based on grades or similar. Striving for excellence does not give one an excuse to get poor grades, in fact, CONSISTENT poor grades are a sign that a person is not pursuing excellence. What I am talking about is changing our mindset from unrealistic perfection to attainable excellence in the completion of the task at hand, without stressing over the little things.
