Action is better than perfection
Most of us would like to make sure that what we give our client is perfect. Or possibly as near to perfection as we could have it be. This is even more true if we are planning to communicate with a large number of people. In the back of our minds, there is always the lurking thought: “What will they think of me?”. Over time various other permutations of this thought start amplifying this voice. Thoughts such as: “They might think I am better than them?”, or, “What if I said something wrong?”.
If only I was perfect…
All these thoughts can be overwhelming and could lead to incapacitation. It could lead us to do nothing, rather than accept the alternative, which is imperfection.
Perfection inhibits growth. This is the difficult reality that affects many small business owners. The average business owner is someone who values the relationship they have with their customer. They don’t want to disappoint. They want to provide an excellent service or an amazing thought leadership article, or a perfect product. This is always an ambitious and noble goal to strive for, but we have to ask ourselves what the trade-off for perfection is? What do we not get to do while we wait for perfection to happen?
What do I fear?
In your mind, you might have a fear of making a mistake. The mistake really is the alignment/misalignment between your values and how you perceive you do against these values. You might have grown up with an expectation of yourself or an expectation of what you believe others might have of you. What are these expectations? What is the mindset that you have regarding these expectations?
Consider for instance the mindset: “Action is better than imperfection”, or, “Mistakes are proof that you are trying.” How do your values align to trying as opposed to perfection?
If you are a perfectionist then there are some real advantages that you can harvest from this, while also considering the disadvantages that can hamstring you from making progress. The following article in Harvard Business Review on How to Manage your Perfectionism can really assist you.
Our fear amplifies the negative thoughts
A fear that you may have, especially when engaging on social media, is the fear of being ridiculed. Or possibly saying something that is unpopular. This is a natural fear since the media really does focus on the negative incidents that occur.
It takes courage for us to say something different from what others say. It takes courage to speak out and be different. Courage is rare and displaying it already makes you a leader.
What mindset do you want to have?
Take a moment to think through the mindset that you want to have about how you market and present yourself. What would this mindset look like? How would it move you forward and help you to succeed? What would the best mindset be? What would serve you best and help you to serve others best?