Are you getting in your own way? Are you allowing your desire for perfection to hold you back from taking the next step in your business? Maybe you’re holding back from public speaking, or launching your new website, or creating your new info product, all because you feel like it just won’t be perfect.
I know I’ve personally struggled with perfectionism. And perfectionism leads to procrastination. For me looking back I see how I procrastinated for years before finally leaving my comfy Fortune 100 position to launch my own consulting company. Thankfully, I took the leap and I’ve built an amazing 6-figure business empire for myself all because I taught myself to work towards predictable results.
Let’s look at the difference between perfect and predictable results.
It’s simple really. You will NEVER have perfect results. So if you wait, delay and procrastinate until it’s perfect you won’t get results… period. I appreciated what Michael J. Fox said about it, “I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.”
On the other hand predictable results are totally attainable! You go into it by striving towards excellence while still being realistic. You start small and keep tweaking your formula as you experiment and learn. Then as you see what works, and what doesn’t, you fine tune things until your results literally become predictable.
Let’s look at how this predictable approach can work in action.
Let’s say you have a new info product you’ve wanted to launch but you’re afraid no one will buy it. You could start with a soft launch with your current clients and then study your results. Which emails worked, which social media platform had the biggest pull, what kind of client feedback did you get? Then take what you observed into account and you’ll be prepared for a bigger, more successful launch next time.
What if you need to do more public speaking to pull in new clients but you’re afraid you’re not polished enough yet? Don’t wait until you have the perfect speech just start small. Use networking events to share your message to a larger group or speak for free at small local events. This will help your confidence grow and you’ll see what your audience responds to so you can incorporate that into your larger, paid speaking gigs in the future.
How about those of you who need a new website but you’re stuck on the perfect design or copy? You know who you are! Again no one has a perfect website but an imperfect website is better than nothing. And the beauty of the Internet is that it’s not written in stone! You can refine the copy or change the design as you grow.
When you model imperfect action you learn as you go, so you see where you can tweak things to make them work even better. And while it won’t be perfect (there’s always bound to be some typo or technical snafu) your results will be fairly predictable.
This predictable approach also keeps your momentum moving forward. When you’re stuck in perfection mode the only thing that’s predictable is that your progress is at a standstill or so painfully slow that you’re burned out before you even start. Instead, maintain a HEALTHY FEAR of DOING NOTHING.
So keep working towards predictable results by moving forward, trying new things and pushing the boundaries. We live in a time when businesses have to constantly scale-up to keep up. Perfectionists will get left behind.
Predictable Results™ Assignment
Are you stalling in your business because you’re worried about being perfect? Write down what it is and come up with the first three steps of imperfect action that you want to take in order to get results.
Need help? Call 1-800-267-3245 for a free 30-minute consultation to see how we can help you!
As a pioneering and visionary innovator, Sarah is a certified professional image consultant and brand strategist, speaker, trainer and author. Her company, Illustra Business Coaching, provides leading-edge business building strategies for small business owners & entrepreneurs who wish to take their company to the next level.
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Copyright © 2014, Sarah Hathorn, AICI CIP, CPBS
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