Do you ever find yourself reluctant to start a new project or task? Do you love the idea stage, the research and the planning but somehow, when it comes to taking that first step, the first action, you find yourself hesitating?
It could be that the 'terrible twins' of Procrastination and Perfectionism are getting in your way. Both will keep you from playing the bigger game in your business so you need to find out how to stop them from stopping you.
Procrastination will often strike when you need to move into unknown territory. Perhaps you don't know what the outcome is going to be, or you're not sure how to do something.
Large projects can seem overwhelming and this can also lead to procrastination simply because you don't know where to start or what to tackle first.
Perfectionism will get in your way if you're one of those people who are never quite satisfied with the end result. You have to keep tweaking or revising to make it 'just so'. Because you don't believe the result will be 'perfect' you're reluctant to even try.
What I've noticed about successful business owners and entrepreneurs (the super successful ones!) is that they make decisions fast. Then they take action fast - and lots of it!
They don't hang around wondering if things are going to work out OK. They don't let the fact that they don't know how to do something hold them back - they know that they'll figure it out as they go along, or else find someone who does know.
Successful business owners will accept orders or deadlines and then go for it! If you've ever said 'yes' to a client request and then had to find out how to do it in a hurry, you'll know what I mean!
They will not worry about whether the end result is perfect or not. As US marketing guru Dan Kennedy says "Sometimes good is good enough."
If you're being held back because you're not sure how to do something - either find out or, even better, find someone who does know. Use the internet, your local library to help with your research. Check with your networks - it is OK to ask for help, so give yourself permission.
If overwhelm caused by a very large project is stopping you from getting started, spend a bit of time breaking the project down into smaller and smaller steps until you find one action that you can take straight away. Once you get started, it's usually easier to take the next step, and the one after that.
Have you ever thrown away an envelope just because you wrote the address on it upside down? If you have, then you definitely have perfectionist tendencies. I'll agree that there are occasions when things have to be perfect, but a lot of the time they just have to be OK or good enough.
I dare you to deliberately do one thing imperfectly this week! Post a letter with the stamp stuck on crookedly, or send an email out with a deliberate typo. Just for a week, relax your high standards where you can and do things imperfectly. Have fun with it! You'll find that the world doesn't come to an end and you actually get a lot more done.
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