Guy Reams (00:02.094)
This is day 175. You don't have to be perfect to be all in. I feel like I should spend more time on this topic. Like I should really spend time writing this up because this is one of the most difficult and soul revealing concepts that I've had to struggle through in my adult life. For a long time I believed that in order to commit to something, I had to be perfect.
or at least complete in my commitment before I would dive in. This mindset is applied to almost every area of my life, from eating to exercise to my career to my religion. It just doesn't matter. All my activities have been subject to this issue. If I wasn't perfect, I just wouldn't start. And if I didn't remain perfect, then I would quit.
Some call this perfectionism, but I think it's much more complicated than that. People who struggle with this tend to have a strong sense of how the world should be. They can see the ideal. That's actually an admirable trait, one that is often sought after in leadership. The ability to see the forest for the trees, to know where we're headed even when things are dark and confusing.
But the downside to this is paralysis. Instead of just doing, we sit and stew on what's missing. We delay, we analyze, and we often never take the first step. Practical roll-up-your-sleeves kind of people often don't understand this way of thinking. And to be fair, it can be very frustrating. But ironically, when things fall apart,
and the road forward becomes unclear, even the most pragmatic people look to these visionary types for direction. This is the paradox. The ones who can't seem to get moving in normal times are often the first to act in a crisis, and they usually come up with the most effective plans when under pressure. Why? Because they've already considered all the possibilities.
Guy Reams (02:25.282)
They've been overthinking everything in their life all the time. So when something hits, they're just acting on instinct. Instinct that was sharpened by endless and endless hours of analysis. They can make intuitive leaps that others cannot because they've already mentally lived through a hundred different scenarios and variations. So in a strange way, you don't really want these perfectionists around when speed and execution are all that matter.
But you do want them around in a crisis, because that's when they ultimately shine. The problem, of course, is that we're not always in a crisis. And so most of the time, this tendency to overthink and over-perfect becomes a liability, not just to others, but to ourselves. I know this very well. I am one of these people. It's taken me a long time to break free of the belief that everything has to be perfect
before I will even begin. I had to teach myself to jump in and try, over and over again, with repeating consistency, in order to overcome my deeply ingrained impulse to wait until everything is just right. For most of my life, I had this intense desire to get everything in order before I would execute. I became an expert at developing complex systems
Systems I would use once or twice before getting discouraged and moving on to the next idea. I have a graveyard of meticulously designed plans that could have changed the world, but they were never executed on. I spent all of my time and energy building the perfect system and none of it actually doing the work. Fixing this took years and I'm still a work in progress. But I've learned this.
Consistency applied to an imperfect system will always outperform a perfect system that never launches. It's the SpaceX versus NASA story. Do you over-engineer every last detail, or do you launch and iterate? SpaceX isn't exactly reckless, but the comparison is valid. You can overthink your way into stagnation, or you can get moving and figure things out as you go.
Guy Reams (04:52.025)
The right way to pursue perfection is not before you start, but after a lifetime of dedication and purpose. The more I grow, the more I realize that the best solutions, the most profound breakthroughs, aren't built in advance. They're discovered accidentally while walking the long, faithful path of consistency and focus. So if you're waiting to be perfect before you start, stop waiting. Dive in.
Make a mess. Fall short. Keep on going. The goal isn't to be flawless. It's to be faithful. Faithful to the work. Faithful to the process. That's the only way anything worth doing will ever really get done.