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Done is better than perfect. I can’t stress this enough. It’s one of the lesson that I’ve put off learning—and living—for the longest time.
Cover letters—done. Not perfect, but done. Hiring managers look at cover letters briefly—super briefly (just a few seconds at most). They either see promise and put it in a “good” pile, or trash it. I used to stress about typos in my cover letters, rereading them several times. I also spent way too much time perfecting the design. However, I’m not going for design jobs. And all the time rereading and carefully designing my cover letters is actually working against me. If I’m pretty certain I’m not going to be sending out cover letters with major typos, I can feel okay knowing that my “done” is pretty damn good.
Perfection is a myth. It’s an impossible and unrealistic ideal that sets us up for failure. Once I realized that perfection does not exist, I simply started trying my best and then letting go. With this method, I’m able to churn out many more cover letters, giving myself permission not to reread them 23,934 times. So instead of submitting a few perfected job applications, I’m able to submit many more—and they’re not bad at all. Getting “good enough” out there, instead of spinning your wheels towards perfection, increases your chances of being known. And the more rings you throw your hat into, the greater your chances of one of those rings (or jobs) going somewhere.
Do you have experience letting go of trying to achieve perfect? Share your experience with us in the comments below.