“Practice your art until you become perfect at it”
Sounds like a statement you would hear from any and every successful person, right? There’s nothing wrong with what they are saying. In order to become the best, you have got to keep practicing, keep moving forward.
A flip side to this is to try and gain perfectionism in every aspect of your life – be it larger things like academics, sports, work, etc., or the smallest of things like cleaning your cupboard, arranging your books, etc. Being good at everything is great, but are we really meant to be perfect at everything?
“Jack of all trades, master of none”
This is another quote you might have come across very frequently – some people possess knowledge & skills in a lot of areas, but lack mastery in any one of them. Such people might be really good at navigating through life, sparking conversations, or sailing through trick situations, but they find it difficult to dominate a single domain.
So the question arises – what makes more sense? Perfectionism, or jack of all trades?
Studies suggest that we are wired to perfection one set of task or skill at a given time – you could either be the fastest athlete in the world, or the best poker player in the world. It’s extremely unlikely that you would find a person dominating two independent fields. It’s also most likely that the field you’re trying to perfect is the field you’re most passionate about.
“Passion drives Perfection”
Apart from the long term desire to perfect a skill, there are people who try to perfect everyday tasks – such as cleaning, cooking, etc. While day-to-day perfectionism might bring you joy, at times it can also lead to anger, guilt, or anxiety of not being able to achieve the task perfectly. Eg. a small stain on the utensil might drive you insane to get rid of, or a small shoeprint on the carpet might lead to an anger storm.
Such people can be described as Maladaptive Perfectionists. They set extremely high & unrealistic goals, and lose their mind when things don’t go their way.
Bottom line, the most ideal way to approach life would be – be the jack of all trades, and try to master the one that you’re most passionate about.