In this blog post, I will share why you don’t need to be a perfect business owner to be successful.
[spp-player]
Join my free FB community to connect with me and other fabulous solopreneurs to help you Rock Your Fabulous Biz.
[spp-transcript]
You don’t need to be Mary Poppins, or practically perfect, and you probably don’t even have the time! You need to go with 80% perfect and that needs to be good enough, or you’ll never make any money in your business!
In what way are you a perfectionist? Perfectionism is all about having super high standards, the dictionary definition when I Googled it says this – “Refusal to accept any standard short of perfection.” Wow, so much pressure! If this is you, then it’s time to change. Life gets SO much more fun when you just loosen up a bit (I know!)
What’s going on?
Fear of judgement – Ironic really when the biggest person that’s judging you is you!
Fear of failure – you WILL make mistakes, fact! Make them, learn from them. It’s feedback, not failure.
Fear of ‘it’ not being good enough – Check the impact, ‘How much will this really matter in three months, six months, one year’s time?’
Imposter Syndrome – Where you think you’re going to be found out. You are – you’re going to be found out to be the fabulous person that you are.
I bet if you think about your family and best friends, you could share one thing that’s not perfect about them. If you can’t, then they’re probably perfectionists and hiding their weaknesses really well! We all have them.
A story about perfectionism
What expectations are you putting on yourself?
Let me share one of my personal experiences, which may help you realise that if you do have perfectionist traits you’re not on your own!
I went for my IIC & M (International Institute of Coaching & Mentoring) Accredited Senior Coach assessment. I was really nervous about it and procrastinated over it for about a year and a half. I finally did the assessment and I was stressed out all day waiting for the call to just be over and done with.
The main reason for my fear was that I’m not what you call a ‘purist’ coach, I don’t just coach, I bring in mentoring too, and for this assessment I had to stick to pure coaching. I knew I’d passed as I was told on the call, and I got some great feedback.
I then just had to wait for the certificate and the actual grade to come through. When it did, I was really disappointed. The pass mark was 75%, I got 86%. I didn’t think I’d done that well. I completely discounted that I’d passed and was now an Accredited Senior Coach, all because of a silly number. My brain still says I should have got a higher grade but I have to remind my mindset monkey that it’s okay not to be perfect!
Are you perfect? No?? Why not??!!
I wrote about perfectionism in the chapters of a book I co-authored. Here’s an extract…
“Now you might not want to hear this. Perfectionism is also hiding a lack of confidence and the need to be liked.
Think about it for a moment…
- You don’t want to send out that letter with a typo on. Why? You don’t want people to think you’re unprofessional.
- You don’t want to put a post on social media that’s less than perfect. Why? Because you’re worried about what people think.
- You don’t start a new action/activity. Why? Because you think someone will do it better than you can.
We want people to like us, there is a need for approval and we think if we show any flaws then people won’t like us. Well, you know what you are NEVER going to get everyone to like you. NEVER. Some people will totally love and get you. Others might think you’re crazy or you might drive them crazy.
The tip to working through your perfectionism is you need to learn to let go.
For those of you that are perfectionists, I know, how on earth do you do that, it’s impossible, right?! Well, it can be done but it’s uncomfortable for a while.
Why is it so hard to do a less than perfect job, but so comfortable to attempt a better job?
Perfectionism doesn’t just affect your life, it may be really stifling your business/work too. I like things to be perfect, but I’m slowly learning that 80% can be good enough. My online coaching programmes might never have launched if I hadn’t chosen just to release them into the world and tweak as I go. People are taking steps in their businesses because I put myself out there; fear and faults, or not.
So what’s wrong with wanting to do a really good job or creating something perfect? Nothing. It’s when the judgement, analysis and criticism kick in that it becomes a problem. It’s when it stops us in our tracks, preventing us from moving forward that we need to recognise it’s holding us back.
Don’t let perfectionism ruin your life and/or work. Take some steps to deal with it.”
Become a work in progress like me!
Perfectionism is self-sabotaging behaviour and doesn’t serve you. It stops you from sharing your amazing gifts with the world. It’s time to let it go and be imperfectly perfect.
Call To Action: This week I want you to take some imperfect actionLet’s say;
- You have drafted some wording for a post, then use it – post it
- You might have a blog post sitting on your desktop, finish and publish it
- You might be waiting to get the right video equipment or the perfect background for your Facebook Live – just do it already. It doesn’t need to be perfect. Check out mine, I umm, ahhh, waffle and forget what I want to say. It’s all okay, don’t let perfectionism hold you back
- You might not be talking to people about what you do because your elevator pitch isn’t perfect – just share your message
- You might not be doing business because you don’t have a website. It’s all nonsense! One of my past mentors has been in business for 20 years and still doesn’t have a website. She gets clients. Do NOT let this kind of thing hold you back
You KNOW what it is you’re putting off. Just do it.
No more excuses. THIS WEEK!
Remember to check out my Visibility Quiz to find out whether you’re a Visibility Lady, Countess, Princess or Queen. If you’re a guy then please change the names to Lord, Count, Prince and King) Once you’ve got your score I’d love for you to come on over to my pinned post on my business page and tell me what score you got. There’s a chance to win a little prize each month.
Also, I would love to interview Ladies, Countesses, Princesses & Queens on my podcast show, Rock Your Fabulous Biz. I’ll be asking you all about what you do on visibility right now, what’s working for you, what’s not and where you’d like to be. If you’re interested then apply for your spot here – http://bit.ly/PodVisQuiz. In order for your application to be considered, you’ll need to have completed the quiz though as I’ll need to know what you’ve scored etc.
[/spp-transcript]
]]>