Ebiz Snap

Git-R-Dun

Your mom probably taught you to do the best you can. In school, your teachers insisted on you doing your very best job (and your grades reflected your efforts). And so you might be tempted to make sure everything is perfect on every task you do.

Sometimes you do need to be perfect.

Sometimes.

But you also need to have the wisdom to know when you can turn out work and complete tasks that are less than perfect.

You need to know that sometimes you’ll turn out
average work and improve it as you go.

Take a look at the company Microsoft. They don’t put out perfect software products. Instead, they do what they can up front and release imperfect software. The reason they do this is twofold:

1. They’ll still make money. Because they offer free patches and upgrades, people are confident enough to essentially “beta test” their software. (Even when they’re no longer officially in beta.)

2. Microsoft knows that they’ll improve their product faster by releasing it sooner. Think about it: thousands of people using their software will uncover the bugs much faster than a handful of beta testers. And so the company releases software that’s not yet perfect because releasing it is the fastest way to improve it.

Now before we delve into this further, let me make a note: Sometimes your work will never be perfect. If you try to make perfect something that can’t be perfected, you’re only wasting time. You need to do the best you can and move on (and make improvements later if need be).
The other thing you need to recognize is whether you’re using perfectionism as a way to not finish a product.

Indeed, perfectionism is procrastination’s twin sister: Except perfectionism makes you FEEL like you’re really making progress.

How can you tell?

Simple: If you’re missing deadlines because you don’t think your project is “ready,” then some sort of fear (of success or failure) may be revealing itself in the form of perfectionism. It’s one thing to want to do a good job… it’s an entirely different matter to have a project stall because you don’t think it’s “perfect” yet.

Getting over perfectionism requires a couple steps, including:

Step #1: Figure out why you can’t move forward. That is, what “pay off” do you get if you don’t finish the project? Why are you afraid to move forward?

Sometimes people can’t move forward due to a fear of failure. That’s pretty common. When you spend a long time thinking about how good it will feel to achieve your goals, the prospect of failing can seem frightening.

Tip: If this is your fear, remember that you don’t get just one chance to find success. Thomas Edison completed thousands upon thousands of experiments as he sought to create the light bulb. If he thought he had just one shot, he would have quit when his very first idea failed.

On the flip side, sometimes people fear success. They don’t know what success will bring – they only know it’s scary because it IS unknown.

Example: Someone who’s looking to make a lot of money with a project may suddenly start worrying about something like relatives asking for money, complicated tax paperwork and similar. And in doing so, he talks himself out of wanting to be successful.

In still other cases, some folks feel like they don’t deserve success. And so they sabotage themselves. Being a perfectionist (and thus never finishing anything) is one way to do it, while avoiding the guilt that goes along other behaviors like procrastination.

This step is the hard part.
Once you can be truthful with yourself and admit you’re using perfectionism to avoid finishing a task (and determine why), you’ll be well on your way to moving past perfectionism…

Step #2: Imagine the worst case scenario.

Perfectionism is usually caused by some sort of fear. But if you really let your mind go wild and imagine the WORST that can happen… you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find it’s not all that frightening as you thought.

So go ahead and imagine your worst possible fear about your goals and this project

Let your mind go wild about what could happen if the project wasn’t absolutely perfect. And then imagine the worst case about what would happen if you succeeded or failed on the overall project.

Example: Maybe the person who’s working on a new business is suddenly gripped by the fear of begging relatives and complex taxes.

If you let your mind run with those fears, you’ll see there not so scary.

Example: The newly successful person can instantly eliminate the fear of complex taxes by hiring a good tax accountant.

Step #3: Commit to moving forward.

Once you’ve uncovered your specific reason for perfectionism and imagined your worst fears, you’ll feel a whole lot better. And that’s the perfect time to take a massive step towards your goal (as action will make the rest of your fear melt away).

Example: If you’re doing something like writing a book, force yourself to write the introduction… and give yourself permission for it to be awful (you can go back later and edit it).

Tags: Time Management

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