Neitzsche was WRONG: What doesn’t kill you doesn’t make you stronger!

Dear Friend,

Neitzche famously wrote: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

This axiom has been repeated so many times that many of us don’t even question it. We have accepted it as a holy truth.

Let’s look at where that is NOT true:

PERFECTIONISM.

Perfectionism has become something of a hidden epidemic. I see scores of women (and men) suffering from it. I myself am a recovering perfectionist, and not yet free from its clutches.

Now, why do so many of us wear PERFECTIONISM as a badge of honor?

Because we believe perfectionists are superior people.
They have higher standards.
They are more successful.

But are they really? Are they really more successful?

NO!

And, here are two reasons why:

One, Perfectionists may work longer and harder on a task than needed, which leads to burnout and compromises their health. That, in turn, gets in the way of creating superior results.

Two, Perfectionists are more focused on achieving perfect results. That intense focus on perfect outcomes creates a lot of anxiety, which leads perfectionists to procrastinate more than non-perfectionists. That means at the end of the day,

Perfectionists are putting out less volume of work,
learning less than others, and therefore,
growing less than others.

As a leading expert on perfectionism, Thomas Curran writes in the Perfection Trap, perfectionism creates both greater burnout and anxiety, neither of which make you stronger, or more successful.

And that is why Neitzche was wrong:

Perfectionists everywhere are killing themselves trying to achieve perfect results, but it is not making them stronger. It’s only keeping them trapped in an endless cycle of frustration and unhappiness.

Let’s focus instead on taking IMPERFECT ACTION – one tiny imperfect action at a time!