Pandemic Mindset

Valuing progress NOT perfection & two simple actions you need to take today

During the past week, I have been asked a lot of questions about the return to school, (the bad) news regarding kids and COVID, and new mask mandates.

Many of the questions I’ve been asked include claims of perfection — if masks don’t work perfectly, why mandate that we wear them? There is no randomized control trial (what some consider the perfect study design) showing that masks prevent disease spread - how can you mandate them? No public health measure works perfectly - so why not just let COVID run its course through our community?

Professionally, I’m struggling to answer questions that are tied to expectations or claims of perfection. Perfection and a pandemic do NOT mix. Epidemiology (the science used to study and understand pandemics) is an applied science - meaning that even if we could conduct the perfect study, we cannot apply it perfectly within a community to achieve optimal/perfect results. If we could achieve perfection, no one would choose to smoke cigarettes or drive while intoxicated. Perfection would ensure that everyone received the proper cancer screening and vaccinations.

On a personal level, perfection is something I sought as a child and young adult. Some might call me a “recovering perfectionist.” So these questions have triggered me and reminded me of how harmful perfection can be…

As a high schooler and college student, I prided myself on being a perfectionist. I aimed to be perfect in everything I did and for many years, I was perfect. I graduated from high school with a better-than-perfect 4.1 GPA. I was a state finalist as a high school swimmer and a 15-time All-American in swimming in college. Always being at the top, one of the best, and perfect was not only my goal, but it became who I was (and what I loved about myself). I was “Perfect-Becky” until one day when I wasn’t…

This is me telling my story of my failure - how I failed as an athlete my senior year of college and how that moment of failure (when “Perfect-Becky” ceased to exist) shaped me into who I am today (an individual who values progress over perfection in all that I do and am).

Failing (in monumental style) as an athlete during my senior year of college was a life-altering experience for me. At the time, it was demoralizing, embarrassing, and scary.

(It took some time, but…) I learned that perfection is overrated. Perfect is not the goal. Aiming for or expecting perfection is actually limiting. Often people are paralyzed by the pursuit of perfection; they fail to see the beauty created along the way as a goal is pursued; they miss unplanned opportunities along the way; and they hurt others in their pursuit of perfection. I speak from experience — as I was pursuing my life as the perfect student-athlete, I procrastinated, missed opportunities in order to maintain my perfect schedule, valued perfection over people, and lost sight of the bigger picture. As a stubborn perfectionist, I had to learn the hard way that (as Ryan Holiday wrote) —

“Perfectionism rarely begets perfection, or satisfaction - only disappointment.”

As a wife, mom, friend, professor, TV news correspondent, neighbor, epidemiologist, and recovering perfectionist my goal is to value progress over perfection in all that I do.

You might be thinking… what does all of this talk about perfection, failure, and progress have to do with the pandemic?

So many people are seeking out simple/perfect solutions to end the pandemic. Or they are making claims that they understand the situation perfectly, have the perfect plan to end disease transmission, or have the evidence to prove perfectly that COVID is “just the flu.”

ENOUGH with expecting/demanding perfection.

We are living through a messy, complicated, political, and global disaster.

Nothing about the research, our policies, vaccine distribution, or the news cycle is perfect. Asking questions that demand a perfect response or claim perfection is actually slowing/derailing the work of the public health workforce to end the pandemic. We need to focus on progress.

Please remember — progress is not perfect.

Progress may involve taking one step forward and two steps back (reinstating mask mandates feels like this type of progress). Progress might mean that a booster dose of the vaccine is necessary. And progress may mean a delay in a EUA for vaccines for kids aged 5-11. Progress may mean showing up and acknowledging you are not a disease expert, a health researcher, or a public health professional. For me, progress is identifying what I don’t know, seeking trusted sources of information, and sharing my knowledge and expertise in an effort to create healthy communities.

We all need to adopt a progress-focused mindset.

When I was inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to pause and reflect on my 13 years of competitive swimming. And as you heard me say in the video above, what I valued most throughout that time were the relationships that sustained me (even as I pursued the ridiculous goal of perfection), and I am forever grateful for my epic failure as a swimmer. As I think about progress over perfection in the midst of COVID, I am trying to imagine what it would be like pause, reflect, and speak to an audience about my COVID experience 20 years from now. I’m looking to the future in an effort to ensure that my work today is aligned with my core values and seeks to create a healthy community. If I get to speak in 20 years about my COVID experience, I want to talk about how I worked to share the most up-to-date information, listened to others, prioritized the health of the unhealthiest person, and how I cared for others through my actions. So I must make progress toward these goals now (through my actions on a day-to-day basis).

I want to ask two things of each of you…

1. Please stop seeking perfection. Aim for progress.
   What can you do today to promote progress? Do it! And share your action with me (comment below).

2. Pause and reflect on what you did today — if you are inducted into the community hall of fame in 20 years and asked to reflect on your behavior during the pandemic, what would you say based on your actions today? If you don’t want to be remembered as someone who spread misinformation - get off of Facebook. If you don’t want to be remembered as the whiny parent who complained about every COVID mitigation strategy, stop complaining to the teachers. If you are exhausted and cannot see the good in your community, be the good. Buy someone a coffee, smile at a neighbor, wear a mask around your elderly neighbors, or ask me a question without expecting a perfect response.

Progress is actually easier than perfection.

And if we can commit to progress over perfection, I believe we can come together (despite differences) to work toward creating a healthy community.