Rarely are successful people the perfectionist type. Maybe they were at one point in life, but they realize that they can't get much further when saddled with such an attitude.

See, perfectionism works very well when it comes to lower levels of achievement, but such an approach tends to fall flat when operating at a higher level.

In a 2015 book, Organize Tomorrow Today, Dr. Jason Selk tells us that "Highly successful people give tremendous attention to the most important activities daily and then do fairly well with the rest."

Those who are successful typically have a mastery of a few things, but can also operate "decent enough" in the rest of their endeavors so that the whole thing called life goes relatively smoothly. The key is evaluation.

Selk tells us that "Evaluation is the genesis of improvement, however if the evaluation isn't done correctly it will be counterproductive."

Why or how can one evaluate his or her own life incorrectly, you may wonder?

"Unfortunately," writes Selk, "most people learn to evaluate with the perfectionist mentality."

I got to thinking, then, about the virtuous idea of perseverance and compared it to the vicious attitude of "bullheadedness."

Perseverance:

• Helps you navigate difficult, but manageable, obstacles

• Is maintaining your goals while looking for a more efficient way to achieve them

• Allows you to be receptive to feedback and ideas

• Is you anticipating future challenges, yet at the same time sticking with your plan for a reasonable or allotted period of time

Bullheadedness:

• Does not allow you to acknowledge that things aren't working

• Uses your pride and ego to interfere with your practicality

• Leads to your refusal to change course despite an abundance of data

• Blames external factors for your poor performance

Evaluate whether you are "persevering" through your latest trial, tribulation, or problem or if you are simply bullheaded. There may be a little bit of both.

Our coaching program helps you evaluate yourself honestly and without a perfectionist's bent. It's okay to be a little "unokay," in other words.

If you sign up for the offer available at http://oleary.coach before June 5, we will also send you our new $479 training, where we dedicate several videos to Selk's idea of "organizing tomorrow today." You'll get the entire training for free. No strings. Yours to keep.

As always,

Brian