A++ or B?

You're doing your book report in middle school. You read the book, brainstormed, made an outline, then flushed out the paragraphs. You walked through one round of editing. The syllabus says 3-5 pages. Yours is three. You know if you turn it in now you'll get at least a B.

Do you do another round of editing?

Realistically speaking you could spend another hour or two editing and tweaking the format to get closer to five pages. You could have your mom review it. You could change the title and read a few CliffsNotes reviews to get an even better edge on the topic. Is it worth it? Or do we need to apply the law of diminishing returns?

The Law of Diminishing Returns The law of diminishing returns is an economic principle stating that as investment in a particular area increases, the rate of profit from that investment, after a certain point, can't continue to increase if other variables remain constant. As investment continues past that point, the rate of return begins to decrease. --Tech Target

Many of my intelligent clients struggle with obsessive thoughts and perfectionism. They can hyperfixate on getting things exactly right. (I also own this tendancy myself). Perhaps their behavior isn't quite worthy of an OCD diagnosis, but they are certainly spending more time editing themselves than living. They intensely finish projects or prep for conversations, sometimes to the point of psyching themselves out, failing to engage at all.

If I notice this happening, I might ask them, "What kind of person are you trying to be? A++ or B?" It's not that I don't want my clients to be as stellar humans as they are, but rather, I want them to get what they actually want out of life. While they might desire perfection out of fear, their bigger dreams are often to enjoy life. Being afraid to get it wrong, feeling unable to recover or allow themselves to reveal vulnerability or weakness, often keeps them from getting into the game at all!

I liken it to watching a busy rollerskating rink. You see all the people having fun. You watch the little kids giggle and the older man just wobbling trying to stay on his feet. It's a busy rink and you don't want to cause a roller-wreck. You're watching for just the right moment, forgetting that we're all humans and most of the time will accommodate for a teetering new skater. So you end up just watching, for the whole two-hour open skate.

This is not living.

In an economy that values high performance and only rewards the very best, it gets harder and harder to let yourself risk failure. But not stepping onto the rink means you never get to play the game at all. At what point do you decide to just go for it? (Hint: It's before you're perfectly prepared).

Allow yourself to get Bs for a bit. Yes, try. Yes, wobble and fail. Yes, learn from your mistakes. But this is living. A++ costs too much. And Bs are much better than Fs.

Unsplash Bob Brewer