My name is Christie and I am a (Recovering) Perfectionist.

Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility.

John Wooden.

My biggest struggle in life is with myself and my expectations of myself.  I know that it is not possible to be perfect; however, I still struggle with being able to settle for anything less.

As I began reading John Wooden’s book of Lifetime Observations for our November book club one of the passages that immediately resounded with me was one entitled “Perfection”.

“Do the best you can under the conditions that exist.  That is what counts.  Our Teams at UCLA had four perfect seasons, but we never played a perfect game, never played as well as we could.  That’s perfection.  We didn’t reach perfection, but we constantly strove toward it.

I believe there is nothing wrong with the other fellow being better than you are if you have prepared and are functioning in the way you’ve tried to prepare.  That is all you can do.

But there is something wrong if you’ve failed to measure up to your ability because you haven’t prepared.”

John Wooden.  A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on and off the Court.

Wow… this passage hit home.  It was a great reminder to this perpetual perfectionist that I may not be able to be perfect in my results everyday; however I could do my best to be as close to perfect as possible in my preparations.

I have shared with you before that my dad is also a college basketball coach and one of his favorite quotes that he often told me growing up was, “Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.”   A saying that I have melded into my life philosophy and one that I think about on a daily basis.

I believe it is important for all of us to be reminded of the fact that many times in our jobs, companies, ministries, and daily interactions we cannot control all of the variables.  We cannot control how other people react, what other people decide, or how they have prepared… but you can control one thing… you.

I have developed many routines to help me be as prepared as possible for each and every day and situation.  Two of the most beneficial habits that I have cultivated are:

1. Spending 10-15 min. at the end of each day to make sure that I have everything that I need to be prepared for the next day.  This keeps me from finding myself unprepared in any situation the next day.

2.  I keep running to do lists in my Google Calendar for each day so that I can add tasks to my tasks as they come up.  For example I can schedule a follow up email with a client in two months and then not worry that I will miss that important contact.

By doing routines like these on an ongoing basis I am able to be prepared… because I know that is the next best thing to be since I recognize I will  never be perfect.

I have found myself thinking of this passage from John Wooden several times in the last few weeks as I would find myself in situations when things did not go as I had hoped that they would.  It has even surprised me to hear myself say things like, this may not have gone perfectly but it was perfectly prepared.

Maybe there is hope for this recovering perfectionist after all…