CrossFit South Bend

“If you’re not growing, you’re dying.” -Tony Robbins

Ambition is the fuel that drives you to grow, learn, and create.

But not all ambition is created equal. “Ambition” means different things to different people.

One sets you up for satisfaction and happiness.

The other is a recipe for consistent disappointment and dissatisfaction.

It all depends on your approach.

The Dangers of Perfectionism

To some, ambition means perfectionism.

• Do it right every time.
• No mistakes.
• If you’re not first, you’re last.

Perfectionists do everything in their power to avoid mistakes. But if your only goal is “perfect”, success becomes a binary metric.

So when you inevitably fall short of “perfect”, you beat yourself up for not reaching the goal. Perfectionism is a path of unhappiness.

How often to you hear successful person in any field talking about how they never made any mistakes?

Not possible! To err is human!

This isn’t a comfortable truth to accept. Everyone wants to be the exception to the rule.

I can hear it now: “But Patrick…My perfectionism helps me do great work! I want to hold myself to a high standard!”

There’s nothing wrong with doing amazing work and having high standards. But if your high standards consistently destroy your happiness, what’s the point?

Mindful Ambition = Optimizing

As Harvard Positive Psychologist Tal Ben-Sahar outlines in his book “The Pursuit of Perfect”, the alternative to perfectionism is optimizing.

As an “optimalist”, you still get to use your high standards and ambition as a motivator for growth. But you do so while staying mindful of the constraints in your life.

This approach is rooted in reality, where success isn’t a binary metric of perfect end-results.

Instead, it’s about the day-to-day journey. Create success by using your limited time wisely by spending it on things that matter to you.

Embrace Reality and Make the Most of it

The perfectionist and the optimalist have similar goals. They want to be successful!

But their approach to getting there sets them apart.

Perfectionists may find some success in the short term with a focus on mistake-avoidance. But the long term picture of this mindset is a never-ending string of disappointments.

Optimalists do their best while staying mindful of the very real constraints in their life. They know that mistakes and losses aren’t the same as failure. In fact, they are wonderful learning opportunities!

This approach isn’t easy, because it requires you to be honest with yourself about what you can and can’t do. But the result of this honesty is greater satisfaction and happiness from the process of learning and growing.

So, next time you find yourself in a tough spot, take a few minutes to shift from perfectionism to optimalism.

1. Pause to reflect on your approach. Are you approaching this as a perfectionist or an optimalist?
2. Let go of the expectation that you’ll ever be perfect.
3. Embrace the reality of your constraints. List them out.
4. Calibrate your approach given your understanding of your goals and constraints. What would putting your best foot forward look like?
5. Move forward with intention.

This mindset of mindful ambition applies in the gym as much as it does in work or personal life.

You might be having a zany week and haven’t gotten good sleep, or eaten health-promoting foods. When that’s the case, your performance might suffer.

With a mindset of perfectionism, you’ll leave this workout frustrated and upset.

But it’s not about hitting a PR every single day. It’s about making the most of your training while staying mindfully aware of the constraints of your reality.

Based in Chicago, IL, Patrick Buggy is a coach and writer at MindfulAmbition.net, where he shares mindful strategies to help you live your best life. To receive his most popular articles, join his free weekly newsletter.