One of my mantras is ‘done is better than perfect’. Now it helps that I am not a brain surgeon or engineer where the need for precision and accuracy is going to be high on the agenda. But it’s something I see a lot, which is people waiting for things to be perfect before taking action or sharing their work. Or they procrastinate and put off doing things because deep-down they are worried about things going wrong.
Here are my top tips for overcoming perfectionism:
1. Avoid comparing yourself to anyone else. This can be a major factor in getting things off the ground and I hear it all of the time from people. Not doing something because someone else already is or because it already exists in some other format or other…so what? Your slant on it, your input, your uniqueness will make it different.
2. Not being able to do everything yourself to get it off the ground is an excuse! Do what you can yourself and if you need advice or support, seek it out.
3. By all means talk about your friends and family but don’t get overly influenced by the opinions of other people, stick to your guns.
4. Visualise yourself achieving the result, how does it feel? What would you be doing? Where would you be?
5. Set yourself milestones and celebrate the small wins. If it is a big project, break it into smaller chunks (I call these baby steps) and give yourself some kind of reward when you tick each one off.
6. Get an accountability buddy. If you know you’d benefit from a bit of extra encouragement from time to time, ask someone to hold you to account and check-in on your progress.
7. Eat the frog and start with the hardest tasks first. Putting off the inevitable is only going to niggle in the back of your mind so get it out of the way first.
9. Make it a habit and show up, even if it is just 10 minutes a day. You can find 10 minutes to do something and when it becomes a habit you might find you want to spend longer at it.
10. Turn off the distractions and get focused - put your phone on do not disturb and just throw yourself into the task. Multi-tasking usually leads to multi-failing.
So, what are you waiting for?
If you've enjoyed this blog and would like to read more from me, grab a copy of my book Don't Dim to Fit In and come and join me over on one of my social channels! I look forward to meeting you there.
Love,
Kate x