Here's to each of you who struggles with perfectionism or who manages someone who does.  Almost daily I see a recovering perfectionist peering back from my mirror.  Here's why this topic matters and some thoughts about escaping this trap.

Perfectionism leads to an all-or-nothing mentality where, often, one opts for nothing.  I spent nine months avoiding my dissertation advisor while at Northwestern because I wasn't content with my writing progress and didn't want to talk with him about that.  As I told my students when they struggled to complete an assignment: "Something is better than nothing."

Perfectionism isolates you from others.  People try to speak encouragement into your life, but you are unable to hear them because their comments represent a settling of sorts.  They are praising your adequate effort or your good-enough work, but they must be incapable of or refusing to see the inadequacies your work still harbors.  You no longer trust the sincerity of others and find yourself increasingly isolated.  It is like the lie of anorexia that sees a fat person staring back from an ever-shrinking image.

Perfectionism becomes a pass for not completing work, handing in mediocre work, or always working to the deadlines.  You could always have done better if you had had more time or been less discouraged.  Ironically then, perfectionism leads to less desirable outcomes.

As I suggested, perfectionism either works up to (slightly past) the deadline, or gives up altogether.  Deadlines are the only escape from this prison.  "I know this could have been better, but I am required to turn something in."  A healthier life is lived when you are able to complete work based on strategic prioritization and effective use of your time rather than always working to deadlines.  Enlist others in this effort by having them help you to prioritize and by reminding you that what you earn per hour means that some work isn't worth the effort you are tempted to put forth.  This, of course, means that you have to choose people to trust.

Recognize that your work is intended as an invitation to others to participate in some way in your product or service.  The invitation does not need to be perfect to be effective.  In fact, that's one of the things perfectionists hate about the world around them.  Imperfect work by others often gets the results that elude the perfectionist because others concentrate on what actually matters to the audience rather than on how the effort remains flawed.

Learn to Release Style while you Protect Substance.  The corollary is to define Style as broadly as possible.  Could my graphic images be better?  Sure.  But the newsletter needs to go out tomorrow and what I have supports the message I seek to convey.  Perfectionists fall into the trap of treating every element as substantive - as though each font, color, alignment, word, and so on, will produce meaningful differences in how the message is processed.  Of course, to a graphic designer, fonts are substantive.  That's why graphic designers should provide input, speaking to their areas of expertise, but shouldn't control the release of the final product.

These thoughts are preliminary, but point to a general principle: Perfect is the enemy of the good.  In many areas of life, good enough really is good enough.