I stumbled upon this blog post I wrote last year in another blogosphere and thought it was worthy of incorporating into my own personal blog.

Excellence vs. Perfection

originally posted Mar 12, 2010 10:56 AM by Bill Kunkel   [ updated Mar 12, 2010 10:58 AM ]

Below is an excerpt from some training I attended that addressed the difference between perfection and excellence.

Striving for excellence is a different goal than striving for perfection. While perfectionists never seem to be happy with their work, people striving for excellence know when they have provided excellent performance.

Perfectionists:

• Often miss deadlines because “it’s just not good enough” – and it never will be
• Want everyone to believe they are perfect and that their work is perfect
• Constantly question their ability
• Don’t delegate because no one can do the work as well as they can
• Are often stressed and can easily become burned out

Excellence:

• Always doing your best
• Providing exceptional performance
• Meeting realistic deadlines
• Delegating when appropriate

Rather than setting unrealistic goals and expectations of perfection, you need to expect and accept excellence from yourself and others.

I believe we should always be striving for excellence in what we do, not perfection [which is unattainable until we get to heaven ]. I think that this can definitely apply to musicians, sound production, video, etc..