By Erica Lewis Venegas
I was once working with a mentor who said to me, “one thing I know is true, it’s better done than perfect,” and wow, that resonated so deeply that it’s stuck with me for years and I’ve even chosen it as the topic for my first blog post. Why? Because some things are truly better done than perfect. Like this blog first post, for example, which by its very nature of being a first time around thing, will never be perfect. But if I don’t get it done, I’ll never have a blog. And that’s the dog chasing its tail situation that us people who are running our own business or making up our own reality in some way find ourselves in.
Why not break the cycle? Hey, you won’t be alone, I’m trying to too!
Really wanting something to be perfect, or extremely high standards is natural for business owners — it’s why we’re so good at what we do and so successful, but sometimes it’s also why we’re not as successful as we could be. Some things aren’t getting done. And this goes for our personal lives too.
Stretching ourselves for perfection can make us better at what we do, but just as often leads to procrastination.
For example, on this blog post, here’s how I've been procrastinating on a macro level:
Limiting/sabotaging beliefs:
- I won’t choose a good topic
- No one will read it
- No one will like it if they by chance they read it
- It won’t be useful or helpful to anyone
- I can’t say anything useful that hasn't already been said
Well, those limiting beliefs had me procrastinating for about 8 weeks. Here’s what’s happened on the micro level since my designer gave me a deadline for this today.
- I’ve had to check Facebook for what old boyfriends were up to
- I was suddenly starving so I had to cook breakfast
- a few “urgent” texts
- online shopping for my son’s birthday present
- checked Facebook again
My guess is you’re very familiar with your own version of this. So what if you CHOOSE to drop the perfectionist ideals and KNOW it won’t be perfect, it won’t get an Oscar, it won’t enter the Hall of Fame, but IT WILL be real, true, honest. It will be an attempt, YOUR attempt at expressing your vision. It will be movement in the direction you know you are going, a step towards creating your chosen life. And no doubt there will be a reverberations throughout the universe upon it’s completion and there will be an impact on your life. Likely one you wanted.
So do it, CHOOSE DONE, over it’s never getting done because it must be perfect.
And one more thing. Once you’ve chosen DONE over perfect, and passed by that procrastination, it never takes as long as you think. In fact this post has only taken me an hour and half to write (not including the months and hours of procrastination as build up).
So try it, CHOOSE “BETTER DONE, than perfect”. Maybe even make it a mantra for a period of time — see how that works for you.
And likely, knowing you, it’ll be pretty damn good.
Thoughts or comments? I’d love to hear from you!
With warm regards,
Erica