Perfectionism as Protection  (3 Min Read)

“Imperfection is underrated. Perfection is overrated.” ― Helena Bonham Carter

Perfectionism as Protection

Children’s book author Adam Wallace taught about 40 authors and entrepreneurs how to draw. Wallace is most famous for his “How to Catch” series, including How to Catch a Unicorn. He’s sold a bajillion books and his main marketing channel is doing workshops in schools.

For our drawing workshop, he asked us to draw a series of three pictures. Here are the basic instructions and the choices we made:

1. Choose an animal, a mood, and a sport as a group. (We chose an angry beaver playing basketball.) Then draw with your pen in your dominant hand, but hold it in your fist like a baton. You have 60 seconds.
2. Choose an animal, a mood, and a musical instrument as a group. (We chose an amorous horse playing guitar.) Then draw with your pen in your dominant hand, and hold it normally. You have 45 seconds.
3. Choose an animal and a mood. (We chose a happy giraffe.) Then draw with your pen in your nondominant hand, and hold it in your fist like a baton. And, one more thing. Draw with your eyes closed. You have 30 seconds. 

As you can imagine, our drawings were horrible. First off, we’re a room full of writers. Second, the challenge increased with each drawing. We were sitting in rows, classroom style. There were some uncomfortable chuckles. Very few shared their drawings with their neighbors. The exercise seemed designed to produce failure, not success. 

As a somewhat reformed perfectionist, I evaluated my work. The beaver was discernible as a beaver thanks to the buck teeth and tail. She didn’t really look angry and the basketball was just a circle. How do you draw a basketball anyway? The horse and guitar were unrecognizable. The giraffe. Well, whatever I drew did have a long neck….The word that came to mind was “flaw-maggedon.” It was a comedy of errors but without the laughs. 

Wallace went on to share the point. He said that when kids do this exercise, failure is success. The further the picture is from what they intended, the more delighted the kids are. Learning to draw is all about moving past perfection to grow. You have to draw a lot to be an illustrator. And most of your drawings will be bad. It’s the same for writing and any other skill you’ll master. The point of practice is not only to discover your strengths but also to work on your weak spots. 

Wallace believes that “perfection is a form of protection.” It’s how we avoid criticism. It also stunts our growth. Perfectionism can lead to procrastination, and, at times, to a complete lack of progress. The solution is to not just endure failure but to find the fun in it. And that requires balancing our ambition with a good dose of self-compassion and self-deprecating humor. 

I later asked Wallace how many books he’d written. “Do you mean how many I’ve written or how many I’ve published?” he asked. I said, “Both.” He shared that he’d written over 700 books and published over 400. Even though he is most known for just a dozen or so books, I have to wonder if his “successes” would have been possible without the “failures.” Probably not given the drawing lesson we all learned. 

One question to ponder in your thinking time: How can I get more comfortable with failure so I can enjoy more success?

Make an Impact!
Jay Papasan
Co-author of The ONE Thing & The Millionaire Real Estate Agent