You’ve heard these:
“Perfect practice makes perfect!” Vince Lombardi
“A job well begun is half done.” Aristotle
“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” Vince Lombardi
“There are no shortcuts in life!” -every coach ever.
As an avid sufferer of the evils of perfectionism, those sayings, while might have had well meaning intentions, really have the opposite effect on progress. Jon Acuff’s new book reinforced that with some surprising results from a study done on the participates of his 30 day hustle course.
I wrapped up Jon Acuff’s “Finish: Give Yourself the Gift Of Done” and I highly recommend this one. I have read many, many self help types and I particularly enjoy when they come across as real and not guru-esque. Jon Acuff does a phenomenal job being himself. I recommend listening to his audio version. He reads it himself so you can really get a sense of who he is in his tones. I found him to be hilarious!
If you know me, you know I LOVE analogies and parables. I will come up with several for everything if given the chance. Jon Acuff speaks my language. He gives out a plethora of analogies and bonus! Many of them are incredibly comical and totally relatable.
The underlying theme of the book in one sentence would be “How to do battle with perfectionism.” It comes up a lot and for good reason. The author gives clear concrete examples of how we let our perfectionistic tendencies hold us back. One of my favorite chapters was chapter 1; he talked about “The day after perfect.” He says that the first day isn’t the most important when starting a new habit, it’s what happens the day after perfect. The first day you miss going to the gym, or eating a salad. What do you do after that day? Perfectionism tells us to quit. Tells us that we suck because we couldn’t do it perfectly. Tells us to not even start the next time because we won’t be able to do it perfect-look at our track record!
This struck home. I am a devout follower of the cruel religion of Perfectionism. I was born this way, not even babbling out loud as a baby until I knew I could actually speak. Which I suspect is a huge factor in my anxiety issues.
This book really named a lot of the problems I personally face when I’m not finishing something, or “prequit” before I even start something. But Jon Acuff doesn’t stop there. He also gave actionable items to help power through the named mental blockers.
Everyone struggles with limiting beliefs at times, so I whole heartedly recommend this to anyone wanting a slightly different take on getting things finished than the classic motivational posters plastered to the walls futilely trying to spur us along.
I’ll leave you with these quotes from the book.
“The less you aim for perfect the more productive you are.”
“The opposite of perfect is NOT failure. No. The opposite of perfect is finished.”