The price of perfection

The price of perfection

There is a pattern that I see time and time again in leaders.

The pattern of perfection.

Everything has to be right.
Everything has to be good.
Everything has to be better than good.

And it works.

It works for years.

Because perfection delivers results.
Perfection wins respect.
Perfection gives control.

Until perfection reveals its price.

Because behind perfection lies fear.

Fear of failure.
Fear of not being good enough.
Fear of being seen for who you really are.

And that fear disguises itself as standards.
As professionalism.
As responsibility.

But it is exhaustion.
The exhaustion of always having to…
Of never really being able to rest in who you are.

Because there is no world in which perfection is enough.

There is always more to improve.
Always a bar that can be raised higher.
Always a standard that has not yet been met.

And in that world, you lose yourself.

Not suddenly. But slowly.
Until one morning you wake up and you no longer know who is behind all that perfection.