Perfectionism - Saintly or Sinful?

Perfectionism is one of my traits that I often deny. If you looked at the clutter on my desk or notes to self, you definitely would not guess it is one of my struggles. I am a professor and I love to teach. I teach a variety of college subjects ranging from interpersonal communication to youth ministry to outdoor education to leadership development. I love to inspire others to do what they are called to do, in other words live out their purpose here on earth!

One of the biggest sins that a teacher can commit, in my mind, is to bore people with information & facts. I see story & metaphor as one of the most effective ways of teaching & communicating truth. It unfortunately, takes much more time & planning to create classes that involves students, that causes them to think. It is easy to create lectures which require students to simply take notes while I spout of facts. So this is where perfectionism steps in & where I sometimes trap myself by going too far in preparation.

Curt Rosengren in his blog The Occupational Adventure notes the following anecdote relating to the "perfectionist definition of good enough" which rings so true for me:

A while back I was working with a client who had a serious perfectionist streak.

One session, as we were talking about the lack of satisfaction with anything this

client did, I said, "Do you know what I think your definition of good enough is?"

"What?"I walked up to the whiteboard and wrote: (What I did) + 1 = Good enough

So true! Confessions of a recovering perfectionist: How good does it have to be before I am satisfied? It will never be perfect! I know that it takes me about 8 hours to create a do-able lecture on whatever the subject, including an interactive PowerPoint presentation complete with some good audio or video clips that add to what I am attempting to communicate. If I put 16 hours into that presentation - it does not mean it will be twice as good. All the tweaking & refining of a presentation, might make things look slicker but the content for the most part is going to remain the same. The good ol' Pareto Principle states that "80% of the work gets done in 20% of the time." Parkinson's law follows the same idea that "work expands to the time available."