In my last post, I finished with the idea of excellence. Excellence might be a scary standard to hold yourself or others to, but it really is freeing. I worked for years in both secular and religious organizations that missed the mark of excellence. It wasn't that people weren't trying hard, they just seemed scared of the idea of excellence ... that somehow if they strived for excellent, they would fail. Fear of setting the bar too high kept them from jumping over anything.
So what is your definition of Excellence? Mine is doing my best in the endeavor that I am applying myself. Notice I didn't say perfection. Perfection and Excellence are not the same thing. My dad would call this "leaving it all out on the field." That feeling of all my energy and focus was spent on an endeavor. This was especially true for me when I pitched in baseball. Was I expecting to throw a perfect game every time I took the mound? No way! I was expecting to do it with excellence. To work the fastball up and in, a curve ball low and away, or a slider just on the inside corner of the plate, that was expected. If it was hit, then well, dang that guy is good. To know that I did everything I could to make the pitch count, that's what I had in mind.
So what's your definition of excellence? Are you confusing excellence with perfection? If so, you're probably stifling your creativity and production with the fear of failure.
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