By Jane Malkoff MSN RN NP
Is it possible to set a bar too high? When does a goal have potentially harmful outcomes? Are goals set too low because experiencing failure is so unacceptable because after-all everyone deserves praise? Have we discarded perfection and insidiously settled for the-current-best being good enough?
Reaching toward perfection is the not the same as being perfect. No one is perfect but it would be preferred to set goals pointed toward perfection versus pointed toward just-good-enough. According to TED speaker Jon Bowers, “Perfectionism is an attitude developed in the small things and then applied to the larger job….if you can’t get the little things right you are going to fail when it counts”. View the entire short presentation here (highly recommended);
https://www.ted.com/talks/jon_bowers_we_should_aim_for_perfection_and_stop_fearing_failure
Quality outcomes are less likely when doubting expectations or settling for just-good-enough. I have observed too many individuals come to believe they failed in providing the quality care, services and supervision to someone for which they were responsible. Often, contrary to what they ever would have imagined, they also came to settle for less in the service providers (home health agencies, doctors, hospitals, nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, etc.) involved. In order for the bar to be raised, it will take a community of courageous people not afraid of bumping the status quo nor afraid of refusing to accept outcomes not meeting their expectations.
I have had the opportunity over the past 30 years to be involved with one of our world’s greatest assets, older adults. Let me invite everyone taking care of an older adult to keep the bar set high and the goals pointed toward perfection. Hold tight to your high bar on the little things and let the medical and service providers rise up to meet you at your expectations. Only when they do so will you be able to trust them completely with the larger and more important things.