All of us want to do a good job at work. No one wakes up in the morning and says "I'm going to really mess things up today!" We may not think about it on a conscious level, but at a subconscious level we always want to do our best.
That's an example of pride doing it's job well. It's pride that drives us to do a good job. We want to be seen as competent professionals who are good at what we do.
But pride in the extreme causes a lot of problems for us. It causes us to get in our own way by getting caught up in perfectionism.
We know in our hearts that there's only one person who's perfect and yet still we push and push ourselves.
Now don't get me wrong...I'm not saying that we should all just goof off and forget about doing the best work we can. On the contrary...but I think we've got to work to get some sort of healthy balance.
How do we do that?
Focus on the goal. I read a quote somewhere that said "the goal is completion, not perfection" and yet that's so hard to remember. Take my business for example...I get so caught up in the details about my website, forms, processes, etc. that it's holding me back from getting an e-book I wrote up for sale, preventing me from creating another e-book that I know will help people, and lots of other ways it holds me back. Because I worry and fret over things that people really don't care about. We've all seen websites with mistakes and still bought the material anyway.
Maintain your perspective. No one is going to call their friends and tell them about the horrifying website they saw with a poorly constructed sentence. OK, so maybe I don't make a sale. If I'm generating enough leads losing one isn't going to kill me. Same thing for you. I can't tell you how many hours I would spend on a project that went no where. Or something I'd feel so great about that would just fall absolutely flat. Ugh. Do your best but don't kill yourself.
Focus on the important things. Priorities change all the time. Especially in these troubled times. When I worked in the corporate universe I'd get whiplash from the changes that would happen. Keep plugged in to the changes at work to make sure you're focused on the right priorities. Jesus would chastise the Pharisees and Sadduccees about getting caught up in the details and missing the big picture. Don't do that.
These are times when people feel like if they just work harder their job will be safe. Trust me. Hard work doesn't guarantee your job security. Working on the important stuff...doing a good job...being easy to work with....that's the stuff that helps. Oh...and learning new things...being willing to learn new ways of doing things. But trust me, if the company needs to get rid of you they will. Be a perfectionist about being loyal to your faith, your family, and to yourself. In that order.
