In this blog post, I’m going to be talking about how being perfectly imperfect in your business is actually OK.
Click the play button below to listen, or scroll down and click ‘Read full transcript’ if you prefer to read the post.
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I’m a recovering perfectionist. Hmmm, not even sure I can get away with that one because there are certain things that I just can’t deal with. Dare I share?!
I HATE it when people put jars back in the cupboard with the labels the wrong way round.
It drives me crazy if I make a mistake on a piece of paper I’m writing on. I want to rip it out and start all over again. In the past I would have, now I have much more respect for the environment and my time too!
I hate unmatching china – I like my dinner service to match and my poor family gets plates whipped off them if they dare to do unmatching!
Being a perfectionist in business can be very interesting. It’s one of those things you gotta work on honey, if you want to get anywhere! I have had to work very hard at it, and still do.
Let me share a story around a webinar I was running. I’d decided to test out a recording of a webinar that would stay up on my page for 24 hours. I like to try out different things in my business and test the results. I set myself aside a week to get it done. The week I chose wasn’t the best one as I was back to back with clients, but that’s how I roll anyway so it was all good.
Well, it was all good until I hit 1.30 on Wednesday afternoon realizing that my webinar was to go out at 12.01am Thursday, the very next day. I hadn’t written a word, never mind recorded, set up a landing page, set up my email messages. I honestly thought it was Tuesday. I’d scheduled out some time in my diary on the Wednesday to sort it all out. I had a plan. Ok so in most people’s worlds it’s not a great plan as people aren’t quite as last minute as me, but in Ruby’s world, there was still loads of time. As I’ve shared in the past, my creative muse always shows up last minute. Thanks for that, by the way, creative muse! (She needs a name – tag me on Facebook with some ideas – I love things having names)
Ok so in most people’s worlds it’s not a great plan as people aren’t quite as last minute as me, but in Ruby’s world, there was still loads of time. As I’ve shared in the past, my creative muse always shows up last minute. Thanks for that, by the way, creative muse! (She needs a name – tag me on Facebook with some ideas – I love things having names)
So, I dropped everything (no, don’t worry, not any clients – I’d finished by that point – luckily) and I started writing the webinar. I had a chat later on in the day with one of my business besties and she said there was no issue with me sending out an email, telling people what had happened. Everyone likes people being human, she said. She was right, they do BUT it didn’t sit right with me. How could I talk about being visible and then not show up? See my conundrum there. You’ve got to laugh really because for all of my introversion I chose to rebrand in an area that
How could I talk about being visible and then not show up? See my conundrum there. You’ve got to laugh really because for all of my introversion I chose to rebrand in an area that defies introversion by making me have to show up. It’s ok for all of you, you get to choose! I don’t, tee hee!
Anyway, I decided that I wasn’t going to do that. I was going to just get it done already. I knew about my topic, it wasn’t as if I had to come up with anything new in terms of content. I was just sharing what I thought people needed to hear.
The trouble was, my little fear monster was rearing its ugly head and doing that whole, yeah but what if…
‘What if you can’t pull it off in time?’, ‘What if the content isn’t good enough?’ ‘What if, what if, what if’. Well, you know what, it might not be perfect, but I’d committed to it and it WOULD be going out, imperfect or not.
So I shared a bit of this in a couple of my groups, I guess because I’d realised how far I’d come.
Because a year or so ago, you see, I’d have faffed and stressed and worried, and procrastinated, and got really super stuck BUT because I’ve worked so much on my mindset I now know that what I share will be perfect and what people need to hear, even if it’s imperfect.
I choose to know that I am exactly where I need to be right now and I have a message to share.
If I miss out an image or it’s too long or too short because I haven’t had time to refine it, then so be it. It’s better out there and imperfect than not being authentic and letting people down.
So, if your imperfection is related to household stuff, like my tins and china, then good luck with that.
Your call to action this week: If you’ve got a piece of work that needs sharing, however, but you’re afraid of putting it out there for whatever reason, then I encourage you to kick your perfectionism into touch and share anyway
What’s the worst that could happen? You’ll make a mistake? So what? Mistakes. Are. Ok. You’re human. Don’t hide away what’s meant to be shared. So you might ask, how did it turn out. It was imperfectly perfect in every single way! Yay, go me! Go you too! Do not let perfectionism stop you from sharing your message in the world. As my friend had rightly said, people love human. It’s time to be human, be perfectly imperfect and to rock your visibility. We’ve got this![/spp-transcript]
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