The word fastidious has a couple of meanings. The first is to describe a person that is really concerned about accuracy and detail. The second is to describe a person that is very concerned with cleanliness.
Definitely not me.
I am when I have to be, however. For example, my wife hates cleaning up after me all the time in the kitchen but go with me on a long term backpacking trip and I am very fastidious. If I catch someone not washing their dishes correctly or washing their hands while out in the wilderness, I raise hell. This is because I have been very sick before with several days to hike home. Fastidious by necessity, I suppose.
I have also noticed that I am fastidious when someone really pisses me off and I need to prove my case. Suddenly all the details matter and hardly anything gets passed me. I will turn over every rock to prove that I am right. Fastidious by ego, I suppose.
So I am going to go out on a limb and say this is true for everyone. I once had a roommate that was incredibly fastidious about the condition of his bed when he made it in the morning. The rest of his life was a complete wreck but you could bounce a quarter off the top blanket. I think we are all fastidious about what we care about.
What is the real challenge is that when you WANT to care about something, when clearly your poor attention to the details means you do not care that much. So how do you flip that switch? Clearly making a verbal pronouncement is not enough. If it was then I would be a rich, cool, and humble ruler of my own country. So how do you get to the point where this inner core of desire makes you fastidious by nature?
Is the secret to fake it until you make it? Kind of. I think it is more aligning yourself to your true motivations. Then setting ambitious goals and building a habit on focusing daily. You can then start to work on habits that mold your daily focus in a way that encourages this intensity. That, overtime, becomes a natural inclination to be fastidious at what you recognize as something that will get you to your goals.
I am thinking that being fastidious without purpose is just annoying. Like that relative that comes over and starts picking at everything wrong with your house. However, being fastidious on purpose is how you architect changes to your very soul.
Guy Reams
