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May 17 - May 17, 2024
Perfectionism is the desire to be impeccable. The goal is zero defects: no faults, no flaws, no failures.
Wabi sabi is the art of honoring the beauty in imperfection.
He’s an imperfectionist: he’s selective about what he decides to do well.
Expectations tend to rise with accomplishment.
Perfectionists often worry that failing even once will make them a failure.
A Minimum Lovable Product
For minimum lovable, she just needed to simplify the story, clarify the characters, and manage expectations.
She had found wabi sabi: the audience and the critics appreciated that a beautiful dance musical could be set to an imperfect story.
Seeking validation is a bottomless pit: the craving for status is never satisfied.
excellence is more than meeting other people’s expectations. It’s also about living up to your own standards.
Before releasing something into the world, it’s worth turning to one final judge: you. If this was the only work people saw of yours, would you be proud of it?
“What some other people think of my work” is “not my prime mover,” he says. “It’s my desire to satisfy me, and to challenge myself.”
An apple that isn’t ripe is not fully formed—it’s incomplete and imperfect. That’s what makes it beautiful.
Scaffolding to Overcome Obstacles
On the path to any goal, roadblocks are inevitable.
Scaffolding comes at a pivotal point in time.
burnout is the emotional exhaustion that accumulates when you’re overloaded, boreout is the emotional deadening you feel when you’re under-stimulated.
it takes deliberate practice to achieve greater things, we shouldn’t drill so hard that we drive the joy out of the activity and turn it into an obsessive slog.
practiced because they were interested in what they were doing,”
Deliberate play is a structured activity that’s designed to make skill development enjoyable.
It blends elements of deliberate practice and free play. Like free play, deliberate play is fun, but it’s structured for learning and mastery along with recreation.
Deliberate play “creates a game-like situation with pressure,” he said, which means “you have to stay locked in and focused.”
taking breaks has at least three benefits.
time away from practice helps to sustain harmonious passion.
even micro-breaks of five to ten minutes are enough to reduce fati...
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when we work nights and weekends, our interest and enjoyment...
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breaks unlock fresh ideas.
Your interest keeps the problem active in the back of your mind, and you’re more likely to incubate new ways of framing it and unexpected ways of solving it.
breaks deepen learning. In one experiment, taking a ten-minute break after learning something improved recall for students by 10 to 30 percent—and even more for stroke and Alzheimer’s patients.
We take regular reprieves to maintain energy and avoid burnout.
Relaxing is not a waste of time—it’s an investment in well-being.
Breaks are not a distraction—they’re a chance to reset attention and incubate ideas.
Before, her practice time was focused on “an outcome of being judged,”
Deliberate play taught her that “the real outcome is her enjoyment.” Without enjoyment, potential stays hidden.
When it finally happened in 2009, he hired 15 people with a range of disabilities and disorders.
Having seen their strengths up close, he knew the distance the team was capable of traveling. They didn’t just meet expectations—they shattered them.
Call Yachol has grown, many of their teams have exceeded industry benchmarks for hourly leads and time on the phone with clients, and some have outperformed teams without disabilities.
He knew that people with disabilities were only one group of people whose pot...
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a way to recognize the potential in everyone—it enables each candidate’s skills to shine through.
Skills are best gauged by what people can do, not what they say or what they’ve done before.
give them the chance to put their best foot forward.
“Let NASA be the one to disqualify you,” she urged. “Don’t disqualify yourself.”
The experience taught him a lesson: “There is more than one star in the sky and more than one goal and purpose in life.”
When we evaluate people, there’s nothing more rewarding than finding a diamond in the rough.
Going the Distance Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.
people with bigger dreams go on to achieve greater things.
Harvard seemed to attract two extremes of students: those who were sure they were a gift to the world, and those who feared they were the one mistake.
It was the initiative I’d taken in teaching myself—and the courage I’d shown in doing an impromptu performance for him.
