This was a hard lesson for me to learn. I’m not sure I was born with perfectionist tendencies but if I wasn’t, school definitely gave them to me. So much so that when I entertained starting my first small business, breaking free of them involved a lot of kicking, screaming and banging my head against the wall.
Perfectionism may have its place in school because you are always aiming for that A+ grade, that 100%, that shiny little star sticker. But when launching something new as an entrepreneur it can be deadly. Sure, we all want to do our best work and be prepared and serve our clients as much as we possibly can. Those things are a given. But if it causes us to stay on the fence and never really get out there then that’s when it can become a major problem.
It’s more about fear than wanting it to be perfect.
One of my Twitter friends, the very cool Katherine Reschke of Passions That Pay brought up this point recently when I tweeted about writing this post. I absolutely agree with her. In fact this is why it was such a struggle for me. The whole idea of “good is good enough” was extremely uncomfortable to me. “But, but, but I still need to…I don’t think it’s completely ready to…I just want to tweak it a little bit more…”
Sound familiar?
Perfectionism in my case was just a form of procrastination. I suspect this is common, especially among first time business owners and solopreneurs. After all, it’s hard to argue with wanting to improve your product, service, article, blog, e-course, etc. Who wouldn’t want to? But we would be wise to look at what is really keeping us from taking action and going live.
Are you afraid that once you put it out there it might not sell and you’ll be disappointed and stressed over it? Are you afraid of what people think because you are constantly comparing yourself to others and how you stack up? Fears and anxieties like these are all normal but how badly are you short-changing yourself by not jumping in and at least testing the waters?
The thing is, there are so many opportunities you may be missing out on by not going for it. What if there are wonderful things waiting for you on the other side of your fears? The perfect time will never come, just like the perfect business doesn’t exist.
You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going.
No doubt this stuff is tough to overcome. But like that oft-repeated tenet of being able to learn from our failures and mistakes, we can’t progress and improve if we don’t even give ourselves a chance.
By getting your product or service out there and knowing you’ve done a good enough job, you’ll start to see that momentum is on your side. The universe rewards action. Once you get this, you will wonder what you ever waited for. You can always go back and update and improve but something is often better than nothing.
Many times just the awareness of how you use perfectionism to avoid the possibility of a negative outcome can go a long way toward re-training yourself to take action instead of obsessing over every detail.
So how will you overcome the perfectionist trap that’s holding you back? How much more time will you waste hanging in the shadows? Believe that there are people in the world who need what you have to offer and stop cheating them and yourself.
Photo Credit: Woodleywonderworks
Great post, Christine.
I have really struggled with perfection paralysis, and I can definitely relate to a lot of what you shared. Now that I’m a business owner, I find that it’s creeping in again. I am trying to remind myself that there really are no failures, just results that show what did or didn’t work. Reframing it like that seems to be helping.
I also liked your perspective on what you’re missing out on when you don’t move forward and try things out. That’s also something that I’m going to start reminding myself about.
Thanks again for shedding some light on this subject.
Amy E. Willard’s last blog post..Is Your Weekend a Chance to Catch your Breath, or is it another Attempt to Catch Up?
Amy–Thanks for stopping by. I also find it takes consistent effort to remember to not get so caught up in the paralysis. The reframing you mention is a great way to handle it.
It’s interesting, not sure if you would agree, but it almost seems like women have a harder time with this. I think we have more perfectionist tendencies which can be helpful in a lot of ways but not always great when we have our own business.
Oh my goodness, did I ever need to hear this today! I’ve been working on – or shall I confess – procrastinating about moving forward with a total revamp of my website. I have lots of ideas, have done plenty of research (too much really), because I want it to be PERFECT. I realize there’s a lot of fear behind these delay tactics. I need to just get over myself and move forward. Thanks for the kick in the pants I needed!
So glad it helped you recognize that Terri! Actually, I myself am in the middle of a complete revamp of my website too and so I completely get where you are coming from. Let’s just say that I began the process 7 months ago and it is just now finishing up! It’s tough.
I call it my “Ready…Set………..Oh wait a minute” complex. It comes from not only my wanting things to be perfect but also from FEAR. What if it doesn’t work? What if ‘they’ don’t like it or worse: they don’t like ME?
One way I’ve worked through it is to embrace constructive critiscm and I look at my client’s as teachers. (And, truly they are–I’ve learned ever so much more from them then they will ever learn from me!) So I’ve done that: Asked for loving, heart-centered (and that’s exactly how I ask for it) critique…I’ve been much better at “Ready, Set, GO!!!!!!!!!!”
Though, like any complex and evolutionary process, I digress too and need reminders such as your’s Christine!!!
Hi Laura–yes, it’s very common, those fears you’ve mentioned. And I like the method you described about asking for (gentle) constructive criticism. I agree with that wholeheartedly. There’s a big difference between constructive criticism and just plain criticism. Glad you’ve got a process for working through it!
I, also, struggle with perfectionism. Starting my business has been a great therapy in just ‘doing it’ and learning to tweak it along the way. You said “it’s more about fear than wanting it to be perfect” and I so agree with you!
Hey Karen–I like the way you put it: “therapy.” It really is a form of that. That’s why it’s so important to get out there and just DO it. Do your best and course correct along the way.
This is such an issue for me. I wasn’t this way in school. I couldn’t understand how/why some classmates (they ultimately graduated with 4.0 GPAs) would work for 4 hours on a single algebra problem. I think I picked it up from working in regulatory compliance, where I needed to write specific and definitive requirements for changes in procedures/materials/etc. And since these matters involved the health & welfare of people, perfectionism seemed appropriate. And I really don’t want to be someone who constantly has to send out follow-up emails to correct errors and omissions from their offers and communications. Are these reasons? Or just procrastinations? It is very hard for me to determine which items justify using the “good enough” standard.
Elena, interesting thoughts. I certainly get that, and I think Monique has a really good perspective on it below!
To Elena,
There’s a definite difference between doing a mediocre or sloppy job that requires follow-up to make corrections and a job that’s good, but not perfect. Perhaps a good metaphor would be making spelling and grammatical errors in a sloppy job, and putting a comma outside a quotation mark in a good, but not perfect job. The first might even call your competence into question, while the second is likely to go unnoticed by many.
To me, there’s a big difference between the two!
Well said!