When the Future you Pre-live is Perfect

Somewhere along the way, a lot of us started treating perfectionism like a badge of honor.

We tell ourselves that if we’re not aiming for perfect, we’re somehow lowering our standards.

We set unrealistic goals, beat ourselves up for not hitting them, and then — as if it’s a noble explanation — we say, “Well, I’m just a perfectionist.”

But here’s the truth: perfectionism isn’t noble. It’s exhausting. And it’s a lie.

How many times do we need to hear about the high-achieving person — the one with the awards, the big job, the polished image — who is secretly battling alcoholism, drug addiction, or thoughts of ending their life? If perfection were really possible, wouldn’t “perfect” people be free from that kind of pain?

The truth is, perfection can never be achieved. And that’s a scary sentence for some of us to say out loud. It feels like we’re telling the world we don’t care, that we’re letting our standards slip. But saying perfection is impossible doesn’t mean we stop trying — it means we stop pretending.

When I earned my doctorate, it didn’t happen because I wrote flawless chapters on the first try. It happened because I showed up each day and fixed each misplaced hyphen, en dash, and quotation mark. I reformatted citations over and over. It was slow work. It was hardly perfect. But it got done.

Perfectionism tells us to wait until we can do something without mistakes. Faithfulness tells us to do it anyway and fix it as we go.

It’s not the bold choice to chase perfect — it’s the bold choice to keep showing up when you don’t feel like it, to take the long game seriously, to put one foot in front of the other even when the end feels far away.

Because that’s where the real results are — in the messy, unglamorous, daily faithfulness that perfectionists are often too afraid to start.

Reflection Question:

Where in your life are you waiting for perfect before you begin? What small, faithful step could you take today instead?