The Best Self-Help is Free: Perfectionism is the Number One Enemy of Productivity

The case of the hypothetical young artist discussed in Chapter 7 brings us to the human tendency which is the single greatest impediment to productivity - namely, perfectionism.

Perfection is entirely a human construct - and, like God, infinity, or the Platonic forms - is not to be found in the world. Every entity in existence has finite magnitudes of every quality, and it is feasible and conceivable for any of these magnitudes to be greater than they are. Thus, while it is possible to have more or less of anything and to experience outcomes that are better or worse, the perfect is wholly a figment of human imagination. The wealthiest man in the world is extremely rich, but he is not perfectly rich - because he can always have more wealth and be even better off. The most productive man in the world can never be perfectly productive - because there is always more he can produce. Such facts pose no problem to anyone except the perfectionist, who attempts to superimpose his fictitious constructs on reality instead of enabling reality to guide the formation of his mental models.

For the perfectionist, nothing less than some vaguely imagined ideal can suffice. Anything else is for him an indication of absolute and inexcusable failure. Yet, examining the matter realistically, we are certain to conclude that the perfectionist is bound to fail from the onset by his own criterion. Perfectionism thus engenders a pervasive sense of futility in its practitioner and mentally inhibits him from pursuing further productive work.

The alternative vision of work from that of the perfectionist is a far brighter one. It recognizes that all men are limited in what they can achieve, but that these limits are not fixed or static. Quite the contrary, it is possible to expand such limits indefinitely, though not infinitely. Nothing in nature caps a person's productivity at any level - no matter how high his current level of output might be; it is always possible to go higher. But the transition will necessarily require an investment in time, creative thinking, and productive capital; it cannot be wished into existence by simply conceiving some perfect state of affairs.

A corollary of the realistic approach to productivity is the ability to concede some states of affairs as being good enough - for the time being at least. While most people wish to increase the rates at which they earn money, for instance, their acceptance of the highest current rates realistically available to them is an absolute necessity in order for them to gradually raise their earning power. Though their current earnings may fall short of some ideal expectation they might have, it is far better to embrace the imperfect state of affairs and gradually improve it than it is to reject any available opportunities and thus to prevent the eventual accomplishment of one's very goals.

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