Are you a Perfectionist? I used to think that I was, but then I realized that I had not done perfect things, so….
Well, today’s illustration is for all of you who struggle with getting things done because you consider yourself a perfectionist.
The Effective Teacher.
A ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups.
“All those on the left side of the studio,” he said, would be graded solely on the _quantity_ of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its _quality_.
His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pounds of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”.
Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work — and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.