“It’s not ready yet.”

This is one of the most famous sentences for #HighAchievers. Our conditioning toward perfectionism begins early in life and lingers throughout life for most of us. In many respects, this pursuit of perfectionism is what allowed us to become high achievers in the first place. When others had gone home early, quit studying, quit practicing, quit striving, we stood alone doing what was uncommon. We sought something greater than most people did and we owe much of our success to this uncommon drive.

But what if we’ve been pushing ourselves and those around us further than what is beneficial? What if our uncommon drive goes far beyond what is actually necessary? I will submit that this is indeed the case for most of us. For most things in life our effort hits a point of diminishing returns (often negative returns) far before we allow something to be considered “ready”.

#HighAchievers demand outcomes that fall into this zone in most areas of our lives.

What makes it a trap (#HighAchieverTrap), is that we have actually hurt the outcome by requiring effort that goes beyond even the point of diminishing returns. We put in 125% of the effort to gain a 95% benefit. Some examples of how this happens:

• We push back a deadline because the project just needs a little more polishing.
• We constantly triple check the work of  our subordinates because it doesn’t live up to our standards. In many cases, we just take over and do it right ourselves.
• When our children come home with a 19 out of 20 on their spelling test, we give them grief about how they misspelled one wrong word instead of praising them for getting 19 right. (I’m a guilty fool here)
• We don’t host the party because we worry too much about the food preparation that we self impose on ourselves.
• We refuse to play basketball because we can no longer do what we used to be able to do when we were 18 years old.
• We don’t send any gift because we can’t find the perfect one.
• We take 6 years to write a book instead of 6 months because it can always be a little bit better. (Personal experience here as well)
• We’re never happy with what we see in the mirror.
• The grass constantly feels greener everywhere else.

To be sure, there are certain areas of life that require perfection. I appreciate it very much when my pilot demands a very specific outcome. Olympic athletes often require perfection because every 100th of a second matters. But most of life is not this way. What we fail to realize as #HighAchievers is that most of the world hangs out a very different point along this curve.

Most people are perfectly content being average (50% of the effort for 50% of the benefit). You see this around you all of the time. I often wish there were times I could feel great hanging out at this point on the curve. Then I’m reminded that a big part of what makes me successful is that I push myself further and harder than most people push themselves. I’m not advocating that we need to slide all the way down to the point of being average.

Rather, here’s the sweet spot I now strive for. For most of life where perfection is not required, I would like to reach the point where I’ve obtained 95% of the possible benefit while putting in 65% of the useful effort. Most areas of life have this sweet spot. We’re just not naturally trained to realize when we have hit this point on the curve so we surpass it and keep going.

Once we embrace this new destination, the benefits are truly transformational:

• We can accomplish more because we’ve freed up 35% of our time. That’s like giving ourselves back 2 days per week to do whatever we want with them.
• We experience more contentment. This is true in all areas of our lives.
• We become more proud of our family members. We realize that we’ve been the problem in many areas with our unnecessary pushing into the point of negative returns.
• We complete work far ahead of deadline stress. By embracing “good enough” as actually being far better than perfect, we’re no longer stressed out by the crunch of deadlines.
• We don’t sacrifice results or impact. Rather we can accomplish almost twice as much impact as we used to by applying this principle to how we operate.
• Those around us enjoy us more. Because our expectations are more reasonable, those around us now enjoy being around us more. They relax. As a result they feel empowered to take more risks which allows them to grow faster and accomplish more. This gets us closer to our objective of becoming irrelevant more quickly. (see the upcoming post on When Less is More at Work)

There is a big difference between junk work and good enough work but there is only a marginal difference between good enough work and perfect work.

Note: I’m not saying you should begin performing or become content with sub-par work or results (remembering that by “sub-par” we High Achievers really mean “average”). I still fully believe in the principle that something worth doing is worth doing right. There is a big difference between junk work and good enough work but there is only a marginal difference between good enough work and perfect work. I’m suggesting that most #HighAchievers fail to understand the difference between good enough work (95% of the benefits in 65% of the time) and perfect work (100% of the benefits in 100% of the time) and a common #HighAchiever trap (125% effort for 95% of the benefit). Acknowledging where you’re hanging out in each area of your life is the first step to making gigantic progress.

Don’t believe me? You may have just uncovered one of the key issues holding you back in life.

My simple approach:

I just keep these four number sets in mind now and ask myself where we’re at on the curve:

• 50/50
• 65/95
• 100/100
• 125/95

I’m a way more content and productive person as a result. I also appreciate those around me far more than I used to and it’s amazing how much they’re accomplishing without my interference now.

Comment below:

• In what areas of life have you fallen into the #HighAchiever trap (125% effort for 95% benefit)?
• Is there a time when you regret not putting in just a little more effort?
• Are there standards you’ve been holding others to that you now realize went beyond beneficial?

Bio for The Anonymous Donor

Executive and owner of a successful international business, a father of 3 children under age 15 (one with special needs), married more than 10 years to my college sweetheart, a multi-millionaire, a former professor, an avid reader, completed my graduate training at Harvard Business School (#HBS), and approach life as a follower of Christ. Passionate about helping other #HighAchievers to build stronger families and careers.

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