A few weeks ago, I was having lunch with a woman who was considering starting her own business, but something was holding her back from doing it.
Here’s what she said:
“There’s no way that I can put out something that’s less than excellent. I demand excellence in everything that I do. I’m a perfectionist.”
Yep, that was her reason for not launching her own business, and she said those words as if being a perfectionist was something to be proud of.
It’s not.
Perfectionism is a silent killer of dreams, and if we care about achieving anything meaningful in our lives before we die, we must kick this silly habit to the curb with the quickness.
The proud perfectionists of the world may disagree with what I’m about to say, but being a perfectionist has very little to do with “demanding excellence.”
It has everything to do with fear.
Fear of being judged by others.
Fear of showing the world anything less than the best.
Fear of failure.
Fear is a sneaky snake and it will find clever ways to keep us stuck, if we’re not on high-alert. Hiding behind a shield of perfectionism is a convenient excuse to stop us from taking action, and if you have any perfectionist tendencies, here’s the unavoidable truth:
You’re really just scared of not being good enough.
I get it, because I used to be there myself.
It took me three long years of tinkering with my website, revising my marketing message, and changing my logo over 20 times (yes, seriously!) before launching my speaking and consulting business. Why? Because I wanted to “make sure that it was perfect” before sharing it with the world.
(Translation: I was terrified that it wouldn’t be good enough.)
And guess what? It wasn’t perfect when I finally launched it (and for the record, it still isn’t), but it’s good enough.
If we waited until we were ready before we tried something, we would never do anything.
I didn’t feel ready to accept a leadership position at my previous job, I didn’t feel ready to have kids, and I definitely didn’t feel ready to quit my job and start my business in 2018.
Looking back on it, all three of those things have brought me more joy and happiness than I ever could have imagined. What if I waited until I was ready to do those things, or worse, what if I waited until I could do them perfectly before I started?
I think of that often, and it still scares the hell out of me.
The time to launch is now, my friend.
Don’t allow the chase for perfection to rob you of your happiness today ❤