Breaking Free From Perfectionism
I’ve realized just how much becoming a parent has cured my perfectionism. My going-on-four-year-old daughter is a master of chaos.
She’ll turn carefully organized toys into a scattered pile in seconds. Everything she eats ends up on her face and clothes, even when she’s wearing a bib.
She lovingly makes art with clumps of glue, randomly chopped up paper, and marker scribbles and admires it with pride. It’s messy but brilliant somehow.
My favorite photo of her is far from perfect. Her hair is a wild tangle, half up, half down. There’s food and marker ink on her face. Her dress is on backwards because that’s the way she likes it.
But it’s so undeniably her. I love her gorgeous rosy cheeks and sweet smile, radiant grey eyes looking right at the camera.
Emily loves to color outside of the lines and she’s teaching me so much.
As a recovering perfectionist, I can tell you that nothing is ever perfect - at least not permanently.
Life is a constant flow of evolution so there’s always room for growth and improvement, always opportunities to learn from your outcomes.
And giving yourself permission to embrace imperfection is life-changing.
I’ve mentored over 5,000 entrepreneurs on growing lucrative online businesses, and I’ve seen how paralyzing perfectionism can be.
Too many entrepreneurs get discouraged and give up when they don’t reach “perfection” right away. They start criticizing and doubting themselves. They make up all kinds of stories about how they’re not “good enough” or how they’re “not ready.”
I’ve seen some entrepreneurs spend 6-12 months agonizing over every detail of their website, neglecting other important business growth activities. And sometimes they never finish because the path to striving for perfection is endless.
So if you’ve been stalling or holding back because you’re waiting for something to be perfect, please stop.
Set yourself free to live and thrive. Let yourself move forward so you can finally start growing.
The closest you’ll come to perfection is excellence and mastery.
You only achieve those levels of greatness when you take imperfect action and learn from your mistakes.
Mistakes teach us how to be better. Never beat yourself up for making mistakes. Instead be grateful they happened, because now you know valuable information to improve.
So ironically, letting yourself be imperfect is the ONLY way to even come close to perfection.
Nothing I ever do in business is a home run the first time, even after 13 years of evolving to marketing mastery.
Yes my learning curve is way shorter and I create big results quickly because of my expertise. But I still need to push the edge of my comfort zone to try new things because there’s always something new to learn.
And usually after the first time I do something, like a new marketing campaign, I get excited to do it again. I can see so clearly all the areas I can shift to improve it the second time around.
If you think of business building as a constant learning experience that you can relax and enjoy, you’ll be happier and more successful.
And let yourself find the beauty in imperfection. Expect the unexpected. Often when things don’t go as planned, they turn out BETTER.
Have the courage to approach life as an adventure, explore the unknown, stretch yourself to try new things, get a little messy - these are keys to thriving as an entrepreneur.
