Episode 55: Perfectionism Isn’t Excellence

Perfectionism loves to pretend it’s a virtue. In high-stakes environments like big law, it can feel like the price of entry: catch every error, anticipate every angle, never miss a beat. But that mindset often turns into a trap—one that feeds anxiety, encourages procrastination, and slows the very progress our clients and careers demand. I’m pulling back the curtain on how perfectionism shows up in daily work, why it harms both individuals and teams, and what to do instead to protect your energy and deliver better results.

We start by naming the pattern and redefining “good enough” as responsible, ethical, and timely—not careless. From there, we walk through practical strategies: create early feedback loops so drafts don’t sit in your outbox, build in short rest windows to return with fresh eyes, and delegate tasks like proofreading when they aren’t your strengths. I share simple tools that shift momentum fast, including five-to-ten-minute timers to break the freeze, and a self-compassion practice that treats mistakes as data rather than personal failure. These habits reduce over-polishing, improve collaboration, and speed learning across the team.

Along the way, we unpack the difference between excellence and perfection. Excellence grows through iteration, feedback, and the courage to act before the plan is flawless. Perfection promises certainty, then stalls progress. If you’ve ever rewritten the same email seven times or delayed sharing a draft until it felt bulletproof, this conversation offers a saner, stronger path forward. Press play to trade the perfectionism loop for focused action, healthier boundaries, and sustainable high performance.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a colleague who needs the nudge, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Your support helps more professionals choose progress over perfect.

Find out more at https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilystedman/.

Transcript

Welcome And Purpose

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Welcome to the Grace Period, where we get real about attorney mental health and well-being and pull back the veil in the high-stakes world of big law. I'm your host, Emily Logan Steadman, a commercial litigator, partner, and someone who believes that there's always room for a little more grace, even in a high-stakes profession. Here on The Grace Period, I share real stories from my journey in big law and invite you beyond the scenes, behind the scenes, past the billable hour to talk about what it means to stay human in the demanding field. Whether you're a lawyer, legal professional, or someone trying to find your footing in a demanding career, this space is for you. Let's pull back the curtain, start the conversation, and find our grace period together. Disclaimer, the views and opinions shared on this podcast are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect those of my firm or any organization. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. It is not legal advice, and listening does not create an attorney-client relationship. Today, on episode 55 of the Grace Period, I want to talk about something many attorneys, high achievers, and eldest daughters, lots of humans, face. What's that? Perfectionism. I want to talk about what it is and how we move past it, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of our career and our goals. If there's one trait almost every lawyer I know can relate to, it's perfectionism. We're high achievers, we go to law school where we're trained to spot errors, anticipate every argument, leave no stone unturned, and turn out high, high, high quality work product. The stakes are high, clients are paying for our services, or in some cases there are lives on the line, meaning the margin for error often feels non-existence. On the surface, and because of all of that, perfectionism looks like a strength, but it's not. It's a trap. Perfectionism doesn't actually make us better lawyers or professionals. It makes us anxious, it slows us down, and sometimes it keeps us from trying at all. Yes, procrastination is often a side effect of perfectionism. I've seen it in myself: reading and reading and rewriting an email for the fifth, sixth, seventh time, sitting on a draft for too long, afraid to send it to my reviewing colleague or partner, putting off a big project because I wanted the plan to be perfect. Yes, a perfect plan before even starting. As a result, perfectionism can lead to burnout because of our anxiety. It can lead to procrastination, missed deadlines or pushing too close to deadlines, and missed opportunities for growth. It also doesn't just hold us back, it holds our teams back. If no one wants to share work that isn't flawless, feedback and collaboration suffer. It can lead to overbilling or self-cutting our time or having someone else cut our time, a metric that hurts you and the partners collecting on your work. So, how do we start letting go of perfectionism? Well, one, you have to recognize when you're in it. Pause, say this is perfectionism, and I got this and try to move on. Then we need to frame reframe what is good enough. We need to let good enough be good enough. In the law, good enough means responsible and ethical. Perfection is not required for every task. And sometimes having it done is truly better than perfect. You need to create food feedback loops, share drafts early, ask for input early, view revisions with an open mind and this part of the process. Celebrate growth and learning, not just flawless execution. Mistakes are inevitable in a complex job. Mistakes are inevitable because we're human. What matters is recognizing them, recovering from them, and growing and learning from there. We must also practice self-compassion. We are often hardest on ourselves. But if you wouldn't talk to yourself, or excuse me, if you wouldn't talk to or even berate or demean or belittle a colleague or a friend for the same error or in the same way when they make a mistake, we shouldn't be doing it to ourselves. Practically speaking, letting go of perfectionism looks like setting realistic goals and deadlines, not giving ourselves a week for something if it only needs a day, or giving ourselves more time if it needs it. It looks like building in time to let the assignment or task rest so that you can walk away, maybe even sleep on it, and come back to it with fresh eyes before submitting for final review. It looks like delegating. I am riddled by typos in my personal and professional life. They follow me around. It's something that I've come to just understand about myself. So I have an assistant read everything before it goes to a client. I'm also a big fan of timers. When I'm stuck in the perfectionism loop, I set a timer for five, 10 minutes, however long I need, and tell myself, just write, just research, just review these documents for that amount of time. This tells your brain that you have a safe amount of time to get started before a break. Nine times out of 10, you keep going and it breaks that perfectionist procrastination. Then push yourself to share your work for feedback before you think it's perfect and before you think it's done, and remind yourself that the feedback you get on that is about growing and learning and about progress over perfection. The legal profession, like many other professions, will always demand excellence. But excellence truly turns on growth, feedback, and the courage to try. High performance, but not perfection. Why? Because we cannot guarantee perfection. Perfection doesn't exist. Humans are perfectly imperfect. If you're stuck in the perfectionism loop, you're not alone. Try recognizing it, letting it go just a little this week, and you might be surprised by how much further you move along. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Grace Period. Remember, you don't have to choose between your well-being and your ambition. By setting boundaries, building supportive habits, and giving yourself permission to pause, you can thrive in law and in life. Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other. That is the path to our grace period. Disclaimer the views expressed here are solely my own and do not represent the official policy or position of my firm or any organization. This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only, not professional or legal advice, and does not create an attorney client relationship.