By Gozan The Annihilator
Whether you’re engaging in a creative endeavor, a self-improvement goal, or your nine-to-five job, you’ve likely grown up being told to do your very best. And rightly so. However, many people take this advice to the extreme, only to find their productivity paralyzed by the daunting task of getting things “just right.” In situations like these, it’s important to remember this age-old bit of wisdom: perfection is always the enemy of good.
As am I, Gozan the Annihilator!
For nobody despises good more than Gozan, the eradicator of innocence! The conqueror of virtue! The extinguisher of honor! All those tainted with purity of spirit will kneel before my treacherous figure! For I, sheathed in my Cloak of Omnipotent Ruination, will feast on all that is wholesome and defecate its remains across the scorched wreckage of humanity.
All too often it’s easy to find yourself lost in the minutia of the task at hand. Celebrated writer Gretchen Rubin (The Happiness Project, fantastic book) crafted a memorable quote to deter us from holding ourselves to an impossible standard: “Many things worth doing are worth doing badly.” How great is that? Put another way, if your goal is perfection — which we all know is unattainable — your productivity process is flawed from the get-go. Perfection and good simply cannot coexist, so you need to pick a side.
And take heed, for I, Gozan the Annihilator, chose my side centuries ago! All that is good must be vanquished! Pulverized into oblivion by my Righteousness-Destroying Death Trident! Ridiculous humans, there will be no mercy when I plunge your world into an eternity of damnation, where all traces of benevolence are sucked from the marrow of your pathetic bones.
Remember: every task has an inflection point — a moment when your efforts downshift from productive to neutral. Or worse: into reverse! At a certain moment, you must find the strength to walk away before you spend additional minutes, hours, or days (!) chasing that elusive perfection, quite possibly making things worse in the process. The key is to say to yourself, “This project may never be truly finished, but here’s where I choose to abandon it.”
Also in need of abandonment: any sense of hope to which you’ll naively cling! For no person of decency shall be spared from my Storm-Forged Mega-Sabre as I shepherd my Barb-Tailed Venom Jackal across the fiery skyline! All shall cower at my Lightbane of Shadow-Casting Putrefaction!
Anyhow, as you’ve probably guessed by now, I’ve got a small personal project to attend to. And just like many of you, I’m sure I’ll be tempted to plug away at it much longer than is actually necessary. But with the productivity tools I’ve laid out here, I’m confident in my ability to choose a definitive endpoint — regardless of my desire to continue — and stick to it.
The endpoint being when all Earthly goodness is defiled and obliterated beyond recognition! Long live Gozan!
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