Waiting For Perfection - Grasshopper

I recently heard voice actor, TV host, and producer Stacey J. Aswad say, “If you’re waiting for perfection, you’ll spend your whole life waiting.”

Perfection is an ideal, not a reality.

It’s something to strive for but never arrive at, because there’s no destination called perfection.

“Do your best” is the closest we can come and that’s all we can ask of ourselves. Certainly use perfection as an enticing carrot, but when you get to excellence (your best), stop. That’s as far as you can go without producing counterproductive results.

In the recording industry, bands and vocalists often do many takes of the same song. But it gets to a point where perfection gets in the way of performance. Let’s say they do ten takes of the song. Many times when listening back they find that take 2 or 3 was their best. That’s the one that makes the album that you can’t get enough of.

Two of my favorite songs “Crazy” by Patsy Cline and “Rainy Days and Mondays” by The Carpenters, the lead vocals were done in one take. It’s a rarity it happens that way, but it was the best they thought they could do.

Please don’t confuse “best” with “good enough for government work.” Because that attitude will put out an inferior outcome every time.

Please continue to challenge yourself to do better, but have the good sense to know when you’ve arrived at the point of no return.

“Leave it all on the field” is a maxim that many top-notch athletes live by. They’re nowhere near perfect but they know they gave it their best, and also recognize that sometimes their best isn’t good enough. They can hold their heads up high because they did more than try. They did their best.

All the best,