Utkarsh Amitabh argues that chasing perfection stops you from growing. He talks about learning from mistakes with humility, and how this mindset shapes his work at NetworkCapital TV. Treat yourself, your relationships, and your projects as works in progress.
Chapters
Hi everyone, I'm Utkarish today here to tell you that I'm very much a work in progress. While many of our social media accounts and the way we present ourselves to the world is often curated and the best looking version of ourselves, I am quite comfortable being considered as a work in progress. At least that's how I see myself. And some self respect, which is essentially the way or the relationship we have with our own self, is something that comes from introspecting. And I'm somebody who's really moved by the growth mindset. I never want to feel that I've arrived. I never want to feel that I've accomplished something which defines my life, or I never want to feel that any of my achievements, the micro stuff that I might have done, is enough. It doesn't mean that I'm constantly dissatisfied and berating myself. But the feeling that yes, it's okay to mess up once a while, it's okay to make mistakes, it's okay to fail, has been something that I've tried to internalize in my life for some time now. Even that hasn't been going perfectly. That is also a work in progress. But I've benefited tremendously from adopting this mindset as opposed to trying to be the quote, unquote, perfect boy or the suitable boy, what have you. I think the whole notion of perfection is something that we should be quite careful of because when you're perfect, it means that you can't improve. And if you can't improve, that means you're not making any tangible progress from where you were yesterday to where you want to be tomorrow. And I think if we stop growing as people, if we stop embodying the principles of reflecting on stuff that hasn't worked well, it often leads to a scenario where we just become static. We're just too inclined to preserve status quo as opposed to augmented for yourself and for your community and for your friends and family. So being a work in progress is also something that I take to my work NetworkCapital TV, which I am building with all my heart and soul. There are many things imperfect about it. There are many things that are challenging about it. There are many things that we should have, could have, would have done differently, but we didn't, we made a mistake. We are learning from it. Even the learning is not perfect, but we're on that journey. In the past few years, there have been times where I've just struggled with this notion of being imperfect and a work in progress. I thought with, you know, with all the accomplishments and all the degrees and all the scholarships and publications, this and that. I must feel comfortable that, you know, I have done whatever I was supposed to and I can rest back on my laurels, but I can't. Nobody should. The whole purpose of having goals is not to meet them and be smug about it, but to try and push ourselves to achieve a bit more every day with diligent practice, with reflection, with understanding that intentionally or unintentionally, we might have hurt people on the way, and we might have hurt ourselves on the way. And while our actions may or may not be forgivable to ourselves or to others, at least allowing that room for, for, for saying that, you know, our bad action or our wrong strategy is not something that is indelible. It's not set in stone. We can undo everything. We can start from scratch anytime, as long as we have the energy, enthusiasm and humility and a little bit of empathy to go about the process. So being a work in progress has been transformational for me. It has made life work, friendships, relationships, much more manageable to me. And it gives me a sense that I may not be good enough yet, but one day, with the right course of action, I can get there. And once, as and when, if and when I arrive at that mythical destination, I can push the boundaries a little more and try and do better, try and become the better version of myself for an uncertain tomorrow. We can't really predict the future, we can't really know what's going on, but we can really adapt ourselves to meeting that challenge. So my call to action for all of you is to try and consider yourself, your work, your relationships, your friendships, your community, associations as works in progress. Doing that will set a new normal for your lives. You will start approaching problems and challenges and situations with a healthier attitude as opposed to trying to just somehow arrive at a, at a mythical destination where you will feel comfortable and confident. I don't think that mythical destination is ever arrived at by anyone. I've spoken to hundreds and thousands of hyper successful, hyper accomplished people from all across cultures and backgrounds. And the one thing that I've admired most about people who are comfortable with themselves and high achievers is that they look at their goals, their achievements, their approach to life with a very different mindset. With a mindset of trying to improve themselves as opposed to trying to prove a point to others. I think many times we try and prove a point to someone somewhere and it often backfires because nobody's really interested in every aspect of ourselves. That's why I love the spotlight effect mental model so much we we care so we think that all eyes are on us. All people are constantly obsessed with what we are doing when they have problems of their own to deal with. So keep the spotlight effect in mind. Look at life with a slightly different lens and being a work in progress is absolutely okay. It's far better than trying to scamper to reach a mythical goal which you know is a mirage at best. For more such insights you can log on to NetworkCapital TV. Check out some of our Mental Models masterclasses Our mission is to make every person who's a Network Capital Community member help build their category of one. And this category of one notion is a defining aspect of our community. Because we don't want each other to compete for finite goals, we want to transcend them. And transcendation is possible by radical collaboration, not by competing over micro tiny goals. So let's give perfection a break. It's okay to be a work in progress. Thank you.
