Is Perfectionism Killing Your Business?
We all want to do thing right. In fact, most of us want to do things perfectly. There is nothing wrong with that, but where the problem resides is when you try to do something so perfect, that you end up doing far less.
I always say, you are better off doing 10 things good...then trying to do one thing perfect. The reality is perfection doesn't existing, and without the feedback that you get through "doing more", you are not going to actually know what perfect looks like.
Are you trying to be "too perfect" with your activities?
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Hi Kyle,
thanks for sharing an important concept.
I have been guilty of trying to be "perfect" in articles and sometimes in life.
I have found out this can be paralyzing to the point of doing nothing instead of trying to put out something, how imperfect it might be.
Thanks for the encouragement.
Bill
I think we have all been guilt of this at some point in our businesses, it is unavoidable because we want to do things right, even at times where we don't necessarily know what is right.
It is the action and the creation that will give us the feedback we need to move closer to perfection. So do MORE, a little less good and you will improve your chances of success drastically (as crazy as that sounds).
Kyle, as a former accounting type of person, I have struggled with trying to be perfect because that profession required minimal number of mistakes.
This month, I have taken a personal challenge to post something, somewhere every day. 7 days in, I’ve had to throw the idea of perfection out the window.
I hope what you say is true….
Yeah, that makes total sense. In terms of data and facts, you still want to be accurate with all the information (if you are referring to content), but one thing you want to avoid is trying to guess what is the perfect article for your audience, without having feedback from your audience first.
And the more content you publish and the more feedback you get, the easier it is to master that process and produce high converting content down the road.
Sounds like you have a good challenge set out Sondra, that will be a useful exercise to help you overcome your perfectionism.
I've been in WA 7 years and have two large websites. Just this year I'm starting to pull myself back from trying to achieve perfection, particularly with writing posts for my sites. I want the posts to look nice, have no typos, be well-written and cover SEO optimized topics, overing as much value as possible to my reader. I believe those things are necessary. HOWEVER, I don't have to read, proof read, change, edit, revise 100 times! I'm adopting more of a "good enough is good enough" approach. Still putting out good content, but not obsessing over it. Doing this is reducing my stress enormously and makes creating content way easier and faster. Thanks for this video, Kyle!
Debra
That is great to hear, I know it is a huge hurdle (perfectionism) to overcome for many...and once you do, you are going to see just how efficient you can become with business.
Trying to be perfect simply means you are wasting time that could be used to produce something else. It is silly when you think about it, as we never know what perfect is until we have feedback or data to gauge based on things we have created that are not perfect.
Hello Debra
Man does this resonate with me also, and I am so with you on this.
I find you get better at maintaining your level of quality but have a lot more shortcuts.
Unfortunately the shortcuts only happen after you apply the learning process, and that, plus the work plus the mistakes, make it a daunting journey.
But as your skill level increases, the journey seems less uncertain.
Much continued success
Dino
Hi Kyle,
This really hit home. I spend too much time writing my posts because I want them to be just so.
I will take your advice to heart and write and publish more often even if I am not happy with every detail. Just being good enough is OK with the intent of improving through writing more articles at the same time it takes me to write one.
Thanks for this important lesson.
Cheers.
Edwin
From my experience, Edwin, once you push through this learning, things flow MUCH better and faster.
I struggled with this too.
Cassi
Maybe trying to write a post as fast as you can, skipping over the imperfections. Sure run it through the spell/grammar check after, but test yourself to see how quickly you can go from writing to publishing an article. I think you will really surprise yourself Edwin!
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Hey Kyle,
It's natural to want everything to look great and be perfect... It's something to call out as it can stop you from achieving something as you will spend too long tinkering on something.
When you talk about quality content, that is when people start thinking about it being perfect. But it can distract you from what is really important - being relatable to your target audience or actually publishing anything...
Great share Kyle!!
John