Is it just me, or do you have a song by Fairground Attraction going through your head now? Anyway…

In job interviews (a long, long time ago!), when I was asked about my weaknesses, one of my standard answers was “I’m a bit of a perfectionist”, as I felt this was almost a good thing.

But is it really?

Perfectionism can show up in one of two ways: constant revising and editing to get it “just right” or a reluctance to start because you don’t have enough time to do it well enough. The end result is that it ends up being left undone, takes much longer than it should, or the job is done badly because it was put off repeatedly until the deadline could no longer be ignored, and it was done in a huge rush (like those all-nighter essays at university!)

Marla Cilley (“The Flylady” from the housework help site www.flylady.net) has the mantra “progress, not perfection”.

Sometimes progress, or “good enough”, is okay. For example, doing an exercise video (or my favourite, a workout using the kids’ Wii) may not be a perfect workout, but it’s still better than not doing anything.

But sometimes you have to hold yourself to a higher standard. But if perfection’s out, what can you aim for?

I recently heard another variation, which I think is a much better mindset, especially for business: aim for excellence, not perfection.

I think most people would accept something that was excellent, even if it had a few minor flaws which meant that it wasn’t quite perfect.

A non-business example: I recently made some ginger crunch. Since the base was crumbly rather than crunchy, it was certainly not perfect. However, the opinion of everyone who ate it was that it was definitely excellent.

So, to misquote Bill and Ted …. Be Excellent!