(This article originally appeared in The Weekly Simplifier #17.)

By Shawn Tuttle

Do you want to help your clients and customers? Silly question (I hope!) Do you do your best for each job? Do you put your heart and integrity on the line for every single client? Do you ever find that your best intentions are sidetracked by unexpected events? The question I’m getting at is really:

Have you mastered the dance between perfection and life?

In the “perfect” (read: unrealistic) world free of interruptions, computer glitches, and just plain bad days, deadlines are easily met and deliverables are of the highest quality. You get to share your gifts and talents with the world through your work, which is hopefully, your passion.

In the real world, life happens—a fantastic dance—all of your trial and errors, birthday celebrations, burnt lattes, stubbed toes, employee difficulties, invoicing, beach playing, mini-dramas, meetings, congested traffic, dry cleaning, misplaced paperwork—and oh, did I mention client work?

The dance between perfection and life is a gentle tension between remaining true to your heart in producing your “art” and achieving completion in your interactions with others.

Perfection

I believe everyone has a unique contribution to make to the world. Whether you call yourself an “artist” or not, the creations that come straight from your heart are your art.

The French artist Paul Cezanne took this extremely seriously: “With each touch I risk my life,” he said. It reveals the intensity with which he produced his art. An extreme for sure, but when I first heard this I was inspired. He shared his passion with as much integrity as he was able. He mastered the delivery of his art and he made a huge impact on the western world.

The question then becomes, for whom is the end result? In other words, who is your audience? As soon as an audience is in
place, conveying your idea to them becomes potentially hazardous to your art. Connection with your client or potential client takes great import. In the business world, your work’s impact increases as your audience grows.

Art and Perfection in the context of Life

Completed projects are good in that they allow for a sense of accomplishment and new beginnings. Fine and dandy…and easier to say when not feeling stressed by an incomplete project. Many people say they work well and even thrive under pressure. Most, however, don’t relish the stress felt when an impending deadline looms large and ugly on the horizon. The experience and fallout of stress is harmful to you and those around you.

And that’s just your part of the equation. What about interacting with clients?

Understanding and anticipating your client’s wishes are a part of the business production. Success is measured by the level of your client’s engagement in, or acceptance of, your work. Managing the “mis-” problems—misjudging, misunderstanding, mistakes, and miscommunication—can transform your attitude from “fresh start” to survival mode overnight. Not the best environment for producing your art; rather it is quite the environment for work to become work.

With all of the time pressures, re-do’s, and trial and error encountered traveling the road of clients & customers, why do we persist? Really now! We need more than $ to make it worth our while!

The answer goes straight to the heart of Service:

You receive the gift of creating your art in the context of assisting another.

I recently heard a professional author at a writers’ conference share some of his tips and experiences. He emphasized the point of being aware of who his audience will be for any given piece. Writing for different magazines, his treatment of the same subject can result in very different articles.

He also repeated a strong conviction that led me to believe that part of his art actually has nothing to do with writing. He encouraged his non-fiction writing listeners to always approach their interview subjects with humility and diplomacy. He took pride and delight in the fact that he had positive relations with all of his own former interview subjects. In the process of writing about them, he honored them. Now that is a beautiful dance of art and life!

One could say that art is life and life is art, and I wouldn’t argue with them. A more curious inquisition reveals a fascinating dance of understanding yourself and your relationships with others.

I always found the science experiment conducted “in a vacuum” to be odd. Who lives in a vacuum? Every single action we make does, in fact, have impact on all other living beings—and the actions of others impact us. The byproduct blossoming from your journey of serving your clients and serving yourself is that you are serving your world.

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify