When you embark on anything,

You have given three examples in your discussion. What a thoughtful and excellent discussion you started. Full marks to you. (i) While writing an e-mail.. I would like to do it perfectly, if I have time... If I am in hurry then I will just mail my message...because at that time for me message is important not its perfectness. Given the choice I would like to send a perfect mail. (ii) To business like cooking.... If I have to, I will go into the details before attempting the dish. (iii) Well, feeding my 20 months old child... I would not expect any perfection in that from child... whatever way the child eat will be OK. Briefly, I try to be a perfectionist, provided I have time.

I tend to have this attitude of "just do it." I always plunge ahead and never fear the risk of its outcome. For the email, if its just for friends, I will type whatever I like and sent it right away. If its for my customers, I need to check it three times to make sure its business like enough. For the cooking, I will taste a food and will try to assimilate the kind of ingredients I needed to use. I'm too lazy to even ask around. Anyway, I rarely cook. I'm content chewing on my carrot. For my girls, it took me 4 years to train them how to eat properly. 4 years seem like 40 years though. I needed to extend my patient with them. After all, I was also like that before.

i make sure that when i finish a work, it is done and never to be repeated again. i hate to redo my work and i think that will only mean that i was careless.

I'm sort of a perfectionist, so I would always try to do it right the first time. That means I need to prepare for something, no matter how taxing or how time-consuming the task would be, as long as I hit it right the first time. Otherwise, I would be very disappointed at myself. To answer your situations then, I would compose my e-mail on the computer itself and correct everything before sending it; I would make sure that I got the proportions of the ingredients first (and would stick to the measurements) before I venture into cooking the dish; and would try to teach my kid the proper way the first time, and would try to correct him/her whenever there's some mistake (but not in a punishing way, but in a 'reward system' way). Happy myLotting!

I am of the Just Do It school. My husband has to have everything exactly right, and prepared in advance, and all laid out to the point that he has great troble even getting started. I then often have to barell in and just get it done because we have run out of time. I find it maddening!

i'll try to do my best and try to get it right the first time around. if for some reason my brain decides not to work on that day or at that point of time yet i still have to get something done, then i'll put on that 'just do it' attitude ;)

I am the kind of a person who would go with "Just Do It!" I think we're humans and we are allowed to make mistakes and not get it the first time around.

I try to do my best every time. Sometimes I will revise and revise again, other times I can perform a task well first time. I guess most of the time I just do it and if it doesn't work right first time, do it again until I get it right

i just type up my mails or replies and go through quickly and see if anything is to be added or deleted before actually sending them. we eat some very good dishes at the restaraunt that we make at home too but the taste doesnt match. i tried finding out from the restaraunt kitchen once but they resited to reveal the secret ..how funny!! anyway we try our best to make a perfect dish all the while. my son is 15 month old and normally fed. he drinks his glass of water and rice from the plate but throws here and there. i think its ok hes still learning to eat and drink as he can. it adds to the cleaning but really lovely to watch them doing that way. i dont remember how i did when i was like him lol.

It all depends on what I'm embarking on. If its emails to friends then I just type it, edit it a little and then send it on. If its emails being sent are on behalf of a company/business, then I make sure I get it right the first time and may sometimes get it checked before sending it on. I'm not much of a cook so if I was asked to cook a dish we ate at a restaurant, I would get my hubby to do it LOL he's the better cook than I am. He is good at following recipes and usually just estimates the portions for each ingredient used. As for teaching my child to feed himself, I would let him explore and have fun with it, also making sure I clean up properly after him.

For emails, it would depend on who I am emailing. If I am just emailing friends, I don't even bother checking.. just send! :P For official emails, I will normally read through till I am satisfied that there are no silly errors. For really important emails, I will do that, save as draft, then walk around before coming back to give it another "fresh" look. As for cooking.. why, I can't really cook! Not unless you can't eggs and instant noodles. Can't comment there! :P As for a child, I am single and I don't babysit. Can't give a qualified opinion there too! :PP I guess whether I "do it right the first time" or "just do it", the seriousness of the stake is important.

I have the problem of trying to be a perfectionist which unfortunately holds me back sometimes. In January I competed against a friend to write a rough draft of a novel (50,000 words). One of the hardest things I had to do in order to complete this project in 30 days was to turn off my inner editor.

When writing a mail I have all the points in my head already, but this does not mean I do not check what I have written, I always revise before hitting the send button, I usually check for grammatical errors/spelling errors etc. A dish is entirely different first a restaurant is never going to give me their recipe so I go to the Internet and start checking various sites for a good recipe and then attempt to cook it! The taste is never perfect as the restaurant might have a different way of cooking or different ingredients from what I am cooking with, so at the first instance the taste might not be the same so I just keep trying till I get the perfect taste! A Child is just starting to learn how to feed himself how can I expect him to do it right the first time I would appreciate him even if he was clumsy and not so great in doing the task the first time.... I am still not that obsessed or that much a perfectionist to expect a 20 month old to do something right the first time neither am I a slave driver or cruel that I would ask my 20month old to finish his job properly at his first attempt itself! Yes there are things that I do to perfection the first time itself and there are many things that I just start doing but when I finish it is perfect one can not always do it right the first time! It is like asking someone to fly a plane right the first time.... not going to happen (they might but haphazardly) Perfection is attained by constant evolving of ideas, in my opinion perfection can still be perfected upon,imagine if Edison was happy with the candle, candle was a perfect light source till Edison came out with bulbs! Perfection also is different for different people my perfection and your perfection level might not match in any level, but my perfection is also perfect and your perfection is also perfect ... hope I did not confuse you thoroughly! thanks for the post. :)

Well Im alittle bit of a prefectionist so when I set out to do something you know it will be done right the only thing is it takes me long then most people to do certain things because of this. I like walking away from something I completed on my own to my satisfactory.

Well I try my best to do it right in the first time but for example for a dish I try my best but after tasting it I do improvise to get the right taste and after every next time it comes out to be better and finally reaches its best. Regarding emails etc it depends to whom I am writing, if it is something important then first I type in words and then correct it and paste, but if it is a casual for a friend I just do it casually.So doing right depends on the situation.

No I just do it as they say practise makes perfect My Emails I will write and then check them over and so on Its no fun being perfect lol I rather be like this

nobody can insist that a baby do anything, certain things come with trial and error and others come when they are mature enough to do it. I just do it but I plan when I can to make sure it is not a failure. example, I would not invest a whole lot of money in a business without knowing anything about it that would be ridiculous but I am not going to plan an email or even an entire book before I write it. I have a general idea for my books and then I just write.

I think it depends on what the task is.There are a few things I just go for without much preparation and hope I don't hit too many walls.And then there are some for which I plan meticulously before plunging into them. For emails,I don't try too hard.I get it right the first time as I am quite used to that.It's like breathing.You do it without much thought. When it comes to cooking ,surely I'd take precautions ,sometimes I'd just overdo it ,lol.That's not my forte :-P As for teaching someone else,I wouldn't insist on them getting it right the first time,especially kids.They are in a 'trial and error' phase and learning through practicing.So,I'd rather see them stay at them than give up because they didn't have it right the first time.If they get in a habit of doing it right at the initial attempt ,then later when it goes wrong ,it might hit them hard.So,it's better that they learn by falling. P.S-I like the flowchart you used for the discussion.We used to employ mapping for learning things fast.

I'm pretty much a Just Do it kinda girl! in emails I write whatever I want to say and then edit and edit til I get it right and I'm satisfied with it..unless its just something quick, chatting with a friend or in my yahoogroups..then I just type and send. For cooking I don't follow recipies exactly most of the time..In case of trying to copy a restaurant recipe I liked, I would just find out what was put in the dish originally, and stick to it or change it depending on the ingredients and what I like or what I have on hand. In cases where you're trying to teach a child to do something, like eat for example, I think you should try to teach them the proper way to do it, but you have to make it fun or they won't want to learn and may get frustrated, and then there's a problem. So, I would let them play some and find their own way, but I'd also try to show them how it should be done and get them to do it the right way.