In an era where even the least decorated human being can have a highly public profile, the desire for perfection has become rampant. Crafting the perfect wardrobe, the perfect job, the perfect family and the perfect life has become an obsession among many, especially the social media-infused millennial generation. And with quarterly earnings being reported on as if they were a sporting event, businesses leaders, too, feel the need for perfection.
However, in her new book, It’s Not About Perfect: Competing for My Country and Fighting for My Life, Shannon Miller makes a persuasive argument for this being the wrong approach to work and life. Her lessons apply not only to her career and her battle with ovarian cancer, but also to company cultures across the United States.
As the most decorated gymnast in American history, Shannon Miller has a fair claim on the highest caliber of talent and grit. In addition to her gymnastics prowess, she is also the founder and president of Shannon Miller Lifestyle, a company that helps women nurture their personal health. But after the birth of her son, she was diagnosed with germ cell ovarian cancer and underwent three rounds of chemotherapy.
Her attitude throughout this process, and the one that shines through the book, is one of willingness to live with life’s imperfections. This was an outlook she had cultivated from early on in her career, as she explains via a vignette about her nerves at the Barcelona Olympics: “When I disappointed reporters by saying ‘All I want is to do my best,’ I was being completely honest. Of course, my expectation for doing ‘my best’ was perfection, a pretty daunting task.”
This points to an interesting tension that most high achievers feel at one point or another: the desire to accept their own limits while simultaneously shooting for the stars. Miller resolved the conflict by determining to do her best, no matter what. This was especially impressive considering she was injured at these games.
“However,” she explains, “I was not anxious about it because my experiences had taught me that when the green light came on and the adrenaline kicked in I would feel no pain on any events…I had no doubt I could compete without a problem.”
This perspective is the one that allowed her to meet cancer head-on, with the no-fail-permitted attitude that brought her out the other side with a clean bill of health. Gymnastics and cancer apparently require similar wells of self-reliance, grit and willingness to work toward a finish line you may never see. The belief that trying is worth it even if you never make it to that final line is what inspired success in both of Miller’s battles. Along the way she learned that imperfection is what reveals character and makes life worth living.
What can leaders the world over learn from this? Miller concludes her book with a final lesson, “…while it maybe be admirable to shoot for perfection, it’s not about perfect. It is about going out and giving it your best every single day.”
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