Perfectionism – Is it a Blessing or Curse?
Perfectionism inspires the artist to create what the mind imagines.
A: Yes!
- It is a blessing when it is the driving force for great achievement.
- It is a curse when the quest for great achievement creates chaos, neglect, and imbalance in other areas of your life.
- It is a blessing when it inspires the artist to create what the mind imagines.
- It is a curse when the mind becomes too tunnel-visioned and one-dimensional.
- It is a gift when the winemaker persists in finding the precise grape, climate, texture.
- It is a curse when the pursuit of the perfect grape negatively impacts the bottom line.
- It is a gift when the architect pays the attention to detail that makes the building an edifice of beauty, safety, representation and functionality.
- It is a curse when the planning process never ends and gets lost in far too much minutia resulting in wasted opportunity.
Perfectionism ensures that the chef fully comprehends the blending and interaction of ingredients down to the microscopic compounds in the dishes that they create.
Perfectionism helps the composer, poet, and writer to craft a work of beauty from random words which in turn touches the heart and mind.
It is perfectionism that inspires an exceptional web designer to use a series of keystrokes to turn ordinary code into an extraordinary website.
Perfectionism has also given us some of our most wondrous works of art that are both visually and intellectually appealing.
Perfectionists search for ways to make the complex simple, visualize the perfect outcome, and work with an obsessive sense of conviction to make their vision a reality.
Yes, perfectionism is both a blessing and a curse. Learning to balance between pragmatism and perfection is a difficult act, one that takes time to learn as the perfectionist often acts from a position of high integrity, ethical sensitivity and compelling idealism.
10 Responses to “Perfectionism – Is it a Blessing or Curse?”
Val June 21st, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Perfectly said!
Thank you,
Val
Shawn June 21st, 2009 at 4:46 pm
I have never been trying to be perfect in my life. Just learning what comes along with the questions that lead is the way I have lived my life. My dreams are large and it has been frustrating to find the smallest step towards them. Even if I have found that step I still don’t find it a perfect answer. There are too many variables to distort that perfection at best. Something you learn as an artist I guess. Is becoming an expert at something perfection in the eye of the beholder? Especially when that expert knows of its own flaws.
Suresh June 22nd, 2009 at 10:46 am
Gary:
Very well said! Enjoyed the comparison of blessing or curse!!
Wesam Halawani June 23rd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Perfectionism is the truth about things in life. It is the reality that life was made of. Look at our mother nature,it was completely and perfectly balanced the way it was made, when we humans interfered, things started going off track, only then earth started crying and screaming and continues to.
Perfectionism is in everything around us, every single day. Look at the new born, look the flowers, look at the sky, and look at you. All is perfectly made.
Perfectionism is love, passion and devotion that can’t go wrong.
Perfectionism is cure as it the power of GOD.
Perfectionism is GOD.
Peter June 24th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
It’s good to see some defence of perfectionism.
Gary Ryan Blair June 29th, 2009 at 11:09 am
Hi Suresh – thanks for the feedback. All the best to you – Gary
Gary Ryan Blair June 29th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Hi Peter – thanks for the post. My objective is to show people how to raise standards and to pursue the best practices of the best performers in the world.
Sandeep August 7th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Perfectionism is a blessing as long as there is balance and a positive mindset…beyond that edge it is a curse. Great post.
Katie Curtin January 10th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Beautifully expressed!
As an artist and coach, I have experienced both sides of perfectionism in myself and with my clients. In beginning an art project, perfectionism can paralyze you from ever making any progress as the first paragraph you write, or the lines of the sketch get tossed or erased endlessly.
However once you’ve bounded in, willing for first pages or picture to be terribly imperfect, and if you persevere and go forward keeping your vision in mind, perfectionism aids you in the later stages. Taking all that you have gathered, you winnow out the inappropriate, the unnecessary, and the just plain bad and craft it into a work of beauty. Then, once again you must let go of your perfectionism, or you will never let the creation be born or it will be ruined by too much tinkering around.
Being attentive to a which stage your seeking of perfectionism aids you is part of the art of being an artist or being creative in any way.
veenu February 21st, 2010 at 1:22 pm
thank you Gary…I really needed this!