Grey Rewired

Perfectionism is Imperfect

The term perfectionist is used rather loosely these days to describe someone who is diligent or goes the extra mile to do something well. However true perfectionism can be extremely damaging and people who suffer with a perfectionist mindset are commonly unaware of the fact they are.

You see everything is imperfect, no matter how much you may try almost everything is. However for the perfectionist mind we can believe that with enough planning, preparation, attempts or the correct decision everything can be perfect.

As an example of how perfectionism can be destructive I wanted to share a story about the time I decided to replay The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. There are 2 main ways to play Ocarina of Time: the N64 release (and the various ports of it) or the 3DS remaster. To a rational person this choice is simple: do you want to play with the original graphics or do you want to play with the enhanced 3DS graphics & QoL features? For a perfectionist however...

A Tale of Imperfect Perfectionism

Initially I grab my 3DS and fire up the game and begin to enjoy my adventure, however after beating the first boss my mind wonders "was the original better?" for comparison's sake I pull out my Switch and play through the first boss on the N64 version, no biggie I've done this section a load of times so it doesn't take long. However after doing this my brain hasn't made a decision so I keep swapping back and forth.

After doing this dance of A/B testing both versions in various sections I still haven't made a decision so I turn to YouTube and look for a comparison and I watch someone telling me what I already know. I hope for a definitive answer but I just get a comparison and in reality even if someone gave an answer someone else would give a different one and I would end up comparing who is right.

So I did the "perfectionist" method of playing both so I could experience it both ways until I hit the Water Temple. Now for anyone who has played Ocarina of Time you may understand why I hit a breaking point here, but for those of you who haven't just know it has a reputation for being extremely tedious, requiring going into and navigating the pause menu 30+ times sometimes seconds apart. The tedium was enough that I gave up the internal fight and accepted the QoL improvements the 3DS offered for the dungeon.

So I made it to credits on the 3DS and in the end I realised I enjoyed playing it more when I wasn't playing spot the difference and dissecting the pixels as part of a clinical comparison of the modern and old graphics.

Then it hit me... if I had just stuck by my original decision I would have had more fun and completed the game much sooner and all that extra effort just ended up making the experience imperfect in its own way.

Identifying & Breaking the Cycle

Beyond just choosing which version of a game to play perfectionism can manifest in a number of negative ways such as:

I hope if any of this resonates with you that it helps you to see these kinds of behaviours don't help you have a perfect time, they simply stop you from proceeding or making something or learning something.

So here is a challenge for you: take anything that you've been putting off and just start with the bare minimum knowing you will make mistakes and you will learn from them. For example if you've been wanting to make a blog just go to Bear ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ and make one, if you want a custom domain or a snazzy theme you can add it later but for now just pick a template theme and make a post. Take that one imperfect step and you will be one step ahead of your perfectionist self.

And remember, perfectionism is imperfect.