Progress Over Perfection: How Lowering the Bar Gets Results

Perfectionism can hold us back from doing the things we want to do.

Illustration by The Epoch Times, Shutterstock

I’ve had more than my share of struggles with getting things done in life. There are certain areas of life where my productivity is effortless—so I know what it feels like to get things done. But I’ve consistently struggled with procrastination in other areas, with my progress hard-fought.

However, I have progressed.

Most importantly, I’ve tried many things that worked and didn’t work, and paid attention to what the struggles felt like. When it comes to getting things done—at work or in your personal life—one of the main things (besides sheer laziness) that keeps them from progressing is the tendency toward perfectionism.

The Problem With Perfectionism

Perfectionism creeps into your life in surprising ways. Maybe you don’t invite people over for dinner because you think your house isn’t clean or nice enough. Or, perhaps you don’t greet someone because you can’t think of anything witty to say. Maybe you stop trying in a certain area because you feel you’ll never be good enough.

In all these examples, a perfect or near-perfect vision of how something should be done leads to paralysis and kills your motivation. If you find yourself repeatedly getting stuck like this, my simple advice is to lower the bar.

Naturally, because you’ve had expectations that were “too high,” you’ll feel uncomfortable at the thought of this. Your brain will try to tell you that lowering the bar will backfire and make you look bad or lead to an unacceptable outcome. My experience tells me that the exact opposite will happen— you’ll finally start making progress toward your goals. You’ll get better and better from doing something, rather than thinking about it.

No amount of logic is likely to convince you at this point, so you'll just have to try it out for yourself. Give yourself 30 days of lowering your bar and you’ll find the benefits speak for themselves. If not, you’ve only lost a month, and you can go back to your perfectionist ways.

 7 Ways to Lower the Bar of Perfectionism

1. Invite people over to your house before you feel ready to host. Don’t worry about what they’ll think, or what you’ll make, or if your home is clean enough for guests. Just invite them over and you’ll be motivated to get your house ready.

2. Set a timer and complete a task before it goes off. The completion of many tasks expand to fill the amount of time you give them, so we avoid them. You can lower expectations by setting a timer and committing only to work for that long.

3. Strike up a conversation without knowing what you’ll say. Many times, I’ve avoided a conversation because I couldn’t think of anything interesting or witty to say. I now feel that is too high a bar— it’s not, for example, the same standard I want others to apply towards me. Sometimes, a few friendly words of small talk can lift your spirits and lead to more conversation.

4. Start a less-than-optimal exercise or diet routine. Maybe you’ve been putting off starting a new diet or exercise routine because you haven’t fully researched your options. If you’re going to go through the effort, you want to maximize your bang for the buck—or so you think. However, this expectation keeps you from doing anything at all. It’s far better to make a couple of changes you’ll enjoy and start making progress.

5. Reply to most emails and texts right away. Similar to how I avoid striking up conversations for fear of being boring, I sometimes put off responding to texts and emails because I (wrongfully) assume I’ll come up with a better response with a little more thinking. That time for extra thinking rarely comes, and all I’ve done is add an item to my to-do list.

6. Stop reading books you’re not enjoying. One piece of advice I give people who want to read more is to start reading more books—but stop reading them if they bore you. Many times in the past, I would get bogged down reading a book I wasn’t enjoying because of an irrational belief that I should finish what I started. Not so! There are so many great books to explore out there, so don’t waste time on ones that you don’t love.

7. Stop over-researching your purchases. Just because we have more information and reviews than ever about the items we’re buying doesn’t mean we need to use them. Instead of procrastinating on that next purchase because you feel obligated to make the perfect choice, choose the first one that appears to fit your needs. Those decisions seem weighty at the moment, but time reveals them to be marginal choices rarely worth your time.