Does Aiming for Perfection Actually Hurt Performance?

There’s a saying on the internet that I often stumble across. Something about how you should shoot for the stars, because if you miss, you may still land on the moon¹.

But is that actually true? Like, do we actually achieve more if we aim for perfection for instance, than we do if we “only” aim for excellence?

Or, paradoxically, could aiming for the moon actually get us closer to the stars?

We’ll take a closer look at this in a moment, but first, I’m curious to see if most of us are secretly more inclined to aim for perfection than excellence. 😁

So here’s a quick (and very unofficial) quiz and a poll.

Which group describes you best?

People in Group 1 have a “tendency to aim and strive toward very high yet attainable standards in an effortful, engaged, and determined yet flexible manner.”²

People in Group 2 have a “tendency to aim and strive toward idealized, flawless, and excessively high standards in a relentless manner.”

You probably have a sense of which of these groups is the “correct” one for us to aspire to. But if you’re being honest with yourself, which group would you feel prouder to be included with?

Sadly, I have to confess that I’m tempted to lean towards Group 2… 🥲

And what’s the difference between the two? Well, Group 2 is a description of perfectionism, while Group 1 is what some have described as “excellencism.”

Why does perfectionism resonate more?

Well, for me it’s probably a mix of various insecurities and a deeper worry that excellence is not good enough. I mean, isn’t it better to aim for perfect and fall short, than to set our sights lower and potentially fall shy of even that?

A study!

To find out, a team of researchers (Gaudreau et al., 2022) conducted a series of studies to learn more about the differences between excellencism and perfectionism, and to see if one was any better than the other when it came to performance.

So they recruited a group of 153 university students, and tracked them for a full academic year to see how excellencism and perfectionism might be related to their grades.

Excellencist or Perfectionist?

In the middle of fall semester, everyone took a 22-question assessment (the Scale of Perfectionism and Excellencism, or SCOPE) to see if they leaned more towards excellencism or perfectionism.

The assessment involved rating how well a series of statements represented the way they approach goals in life on a 7-point scale. Some of the items were more indicative of excellence – statements like, “…my general goal in life is to have very good performances” or “…accomplish great things” or “be a skillful person.”

But other items were more indicative of perfectionism – like “…my general goal in life is to have perfect performances” or “…accomplish great things perfectly” or “be a flawless person.”

Collecting data…

At the end of fall semester, participants reported their grades.

In the middle of spring semester, participants took the excellencism and perfectionism assessment again to see if anything might have changed in their approach to goals.

And then at the end of spring semester, participants reported their grades once again.

So…was there any benefit in having perfectionistic goals, above and beyond striving for excellence?

Results

Well, when it came to fall semester grades, there was no significant difference in grades between the excellencists and perfectionists. So at least over the course of a single semester, striving for A+’s and perfect performance didn’t actually help the perfectionists do any better than the students who strived for “merely” very good or excellent scores.

But what about their spring grades? Is it possible that it just takes a little longer for performance to rise up to one’s perfectionistic standards?

Well, by the end of the second semester, a difference did emerge between the excellencists and perfectionists. But not in favor of the perfectionists!

Because while striving for excellence was a positive predictor of grades, striving for perfection was a negative predictor! Meaning, excellencism led to better grades, but perfectionism was actively unhelpful and led to worse grades!

Why might this be?

Why does excellencism work better?

This is something that came up in a podcast episode with psychologist Ellen Hendriksen and clarinetist Christine Carter. One of the key takeaways from the chat was when Ellen explained that perfectionism isn’t just about having high standards. It’s about a fear of failure, and feeling that we’re not enough. Which can be linked to more symptoms of anxiety and depression, among other things.

Perfectionists can also be less self-compassionate, which is a bummer since greater self-compassion is linked to greater resilience and motivation in the face of setbacks. Which could very well be one of the reasons why the perfectionist students struggled more over the course of a full year, given the ups and downs and challenges that are inevitable during a school year.

So what are we to do with all of this?

Takeaways

Well, the most obvious takeaway is that we shouldn’t be “promoting” perfectionism as the best way to maximize success and achievement and get all the stuff we want out of music, sport, work, or life in general.

Of course, the authors also note that this isn’t to say that we should be putting excellencism up on a pedestal either, and proclaiming this to be the new secret to maximizing performance and happiness, winning auditions and competitions, and getting everything we want out of life.

They explain that striving for excellence is simply a lot more efficient than perfectionism when it comes to achieving more of our potential. (What an intriguing way to frame things, no?)

To that end, I want to share a paragraph from the paper, as I think this really captures the best way to approach this. Both in our own lives, and also in the lives of others in our tiny corner of the universe, like family, students, colleagues, and others.

“It is possible that several individuals just want to live a satisfying, peaceful, restful, and respectful lives. Not everyone aspires to strive toward excellence all the time, across all situations, and for the rest of their lives. We need to ensure that individuals are not judged, undervalued, criticized, intimidated, or shamed for their way of living. We need to remain prudent and not oversell the idea that excellencism could be a powerful ingredient for all good things in life.”

Ok, so let’s say we’re kind of sold on the idea of excellencism. How do we actually put that into action?

Take action

Well, for some, this might be easier said than done.

Because in some ways, I think defining perfection is easier than defining excellence. I mean, perfection just means avoiding mistakes. Like, play in tune. With a clean, flawless sound. With precise rhythm.

But that’s kind of impossible, for one. And a flawless performance is also not necessarily an inspiring or beautiful performance. The latter of which does not actually require perfect intonation, sound, or rhythm. But which does require us to think more deeply about what the point of each phrase might be. The character or emotion a line should communicate. And what kind of sound or vibrato or articulation best captures and expresses this.

All of which is much fuzzier and complex and challenging, of course! But is also way more fun and creatively satisfying (and more compelling to the listener) than nitpicking technical details outside the context of any musical goal.

Chef David Chang once said (and I’m paraphrasing), the point of cooking is not to be exact, but delicious. And likewise, there are many ways to cultivate more excellence or deliciousness-centered musical goals for ourselves and our students. I’d love to hear how you do this in the comments below.

But below are a couple articles and a podcast episode from the archives that also came to mind, which all explore aspects of how to focus more on excellence than perfection, and will hopefully add a couple more tools to your toolbox:

• Robert Duke: On the Value of Errors and How Learning Really Works
• How to Use Positive “Trigger Words” for More Expressive Performances
• Is There a “Best” Way to Teach Students to Play Expressively?

References

Gaudreau, P., Schellenberg, B. J. I., Gareau, A., Kljajic, K., & Manoni-Millar, S. (2022). Because excellencism is more than good enough: On the need to distinguish the pursuit of excellence from the pursuit of perfection. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 122(6), 1117–1145. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000411

Gaudreau, P. (2019). On the distinction between personal standards perfec- tionism and excellencism: A theory elaboration and research agenda. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(2), 197–215. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691618797940