Today’s blog comes from the newsletter of Jordana Jaffe. Jordana created Embarkability to empower and teach amazing women how to start and grow their own successful service-based businesses. She teaches her clients how to attract their own ideal clients, create their ideal schedules, and generate their ideal incomes.
One of the most common fears that I hear is this idea of having to be perfect. Ever heard of perfection paralysis? It’s when you dwell on something so much because you want it to be completely perfect, but as a result, you don’t get very far. Success doesn’t come from perfection – it comes from progress.
I’m going to repeat that – because I think it merits repeating – success comes from progress, not perfection. All of us (myself included) feel, at one point or another, scared of what other people may think – whether colleagues, family, friends, or clients. So you dwell and dwell and dwell some more. Not much gets accomplished though aside from feeling frustrated that you have yet to get it (whatever it may be) “just perfect.”
Here’s the thing – you probably won’t ever feel like anything is completely perfect. You’re chasing a dream here. And more importantly, having it be “perfect” or even close to perfect in your eyes will probably not make so much of a difference to everyone else.
If all of the successful people waited for things to be perfect until they moved forward, we might still be living in the ice age.
All of this said, a few key points to keep in mind…
1. Think about the people who you admire the most. Do you think they are perfect? Ask them if they’ve ever messed up, or if they’ve ever pressed send before they thought everything was perfect and ready to go. I’m betting that if they’re honest with you, they’ll admit that not only have they messed up LOTS of times, but it’s because they’ve allowed themselves to mess up that they’re as successful as they are today.
2. Think about why you admire these people. Do you admire them because they’re perfect or because they’re making so much progress in their lives? In all likelihood, if you felt like these people were perfect, you probably wouldn’t admire them as much. It’s often when people succeed, but still present themselves as human, vulnerable and flawed that we really look up to them.
3. Choose progress over perfection. Moving forward, ask yourself, is this good enough or how have I made progress? Eliminate the words “perfect” and “perfection” from your vocabulary. Replace it with progress. Remember, done is always better than perfect.
Make it a progress-filled week!