Uploaded January 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
I’m a perfectionist. And as a lawyer, I had the perfect job for that character trait. Lawyers need to be perfectionists because if they mess up, it can have serious consequences.
Now while perfectionism results in high-quality output, it also diminishes the quantity of your output. And what you create just never feels like it’s good enough, right?
The desire for perfectionism can be paralyzing. It’s like saying: I’m not going to write this book if I don’t know for sure that it’s going to be New York Times best seller. Or I’m not going to publish a YouTube video until I have cameras that put Matt D’Avella’s gear to shame and aesthetics that would make Nathaniel Drew envious.
What I had to learn as a perfectionist is: pushing beyond a certain point yields diminishing returns.
I’m a perfectionist. And as a lawyer, I had the perfect job for that character trait. Lawyers need to be perfectionists because if they mess up, it can have serious consequences.
Now while perfectionism results in high-quality output, it also diminishes the quantity of your output. And what you create just never feels like it’s good enough, right?
The desire for perfectionism can be paralyzing. It’s like saying: I’m not going to write this book if I don’t know for sure that it’s going to be New York Times best seller. Or I’m not going to publish a YouTube video until I have cameras that put Matt D’Avella’s gear to shame and aesthetics that would make Nathaniel Drew envious.
What I had to learn as a perfectionist is: pushing beyond a certain point yields diminishing returns.
