Perfect Your Perfectionism
Try not to compromise the very thing that motivates you
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Countless unfinished projects and ventures stand as a testament to my laziness. Or, so I once thought.
I could spend a good day working towards a goal, but give it a week or two, and I’d be done with it. None of my endeavors ever ended in failure because I never sacrificed enough time or resources to lose anything. I simply didn’t do anything.
Consequently, I believed myself to be lazy. I thought, however, that I knew the real problem… The dreams that made me crazy with excitement, the ideas that promised success and happiness, would mutate into monstrous fears. In short, I didn’t care for the projects anymore because I saw their outcomes as terrible and detestable.
For a while, I thought that my initial dreams were too optimistic, too romantic, and that cold reality held no place for them. So, I watched despondently as great ideas became unfinished projects. Soon, I lost heart to even try to start new things.
For months I meditated on this problem. Was anything worth doing? Or, would I see after a week or two, that my ideas were stupid, laughable? But, quite unexpectedly, I realized the answer to my problem…
When my beautiful and glorious visions would change into dark and depressing nightmares, I thought that I was seeing a clearer picture of reality—that my pessimistic fear was more accurate than my optimistic fantasy. I was, however, wrong. Perspective is only perspective. Reality is entirely different.
In fact, reality is one of the hardest things to truly grasp, and the influence of attitude and perspective sometime seems more real than logic and reason. So who’s to say which view is more accurate. Aren’t the ridiculous optimist’s views just as farfetched as the entrenched pessimist’s? Again, perspective is not reality.
We humans, however and unfortunately, are more likely to trust our negative intuitions over our positive expectations. There’s a place for caution, but often, it’s just a mental block. Here then is the real problem—letting pessimism and skepticism take too strong of a hold.
Sometimes dreams are ridiculous, sometimes projects are outrageous, but if you think it can’t be done the way you want it to be done, you probably won’t do it. You’ll see the darker side of reality and get caught up with insignificant problems.
So don’t lose sight of great visions, don’t be tricked into working for second rate copies that no one would want to see fulfilled. Remain excited and passionate by keeping your thoughts and actions focused on the extraordinary ideas that keep you up at night. Only then will you have the motivation to follow through.
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