John Wooden Quote Sums up the Truth About How to Measure Perfection
Everyone knows that there is not one person alive who is perfect. However, people still choose to measure others and themselves using perfection as the scale. This contradiction is often a root cause for both internal and external conflict.
On one hand, the impossibility of perfection is used by some as an excuse to do less than their best. On the other hand, being less than perfect is used by some as their means to criticize. To that end, if more people would adopt John Wooden’s perspective on perfection this contradiction would be eliminated. Wooden states:
The effort is what counts in everything…Perfection is what you are striving for, but perfection is an impossibility. However, striving for perfection is not an impossibility.
In short, if you or someone within your sphere of influence is not giving the effort to strive for perfection in whatever is at stake, then there is cause for concern. How is that measured? Wooden has two suggestions for measuring the effort to strive for perfection:
- How one pays attention to the details and,
- How one avoids complacency.
This is a simple rule of thumb you can’t go wrong with.