Goodbye perfection paralysis

Before my fingertips hit the keyboard to write this article, I had been sitting at my desk for at least 15 minutes with pen in hand and a very blank page in front of me (yes, I admit it, I still often handwrite my ideas and thoughts).

I knew what I want to say, it had been tumbling around in my head for days and now when I wanted to put pen to paper I just didn’t seem to be able to get that connection between brain and hand. They didn’t even seem to be on the same body (brain and hand that is….).

Why? Because I was suffering from perfection paralysis! There, it’s out and I bet I’m not alone (surely not??). It seems to be an occupational hazard for high achieving infopreneurs like ourselves. But why should it be? What can be done?

I’ll tell you what I do - I give myself a good talking to. Yes, you read right - I give myself a good talking to and remind myself in no uncertain terms why perfection is not good.

Sometimes I say it out aloud, sometimes I don’t. It depends on how I feel and how far into the ‘perfection paralysis’ I am. You might find these reminders equally useful. So give yourself a good talking to and remind yourself that:

• imperfections, mistakes and failures are part of the creative process. It’s what makes you and your products unique. Tom Watson Senior, founder of IBM was frequently quoted as saying “the way to accelerate your success is to double your failure rate“.

• fear of failure inhibits innovative thinking often leading to mediocrity, and do you really want ‘perfect’ mediocrity? Surely that’s a big, fat NO!

• perfection severely limits creativity and self expression as it often comes from predictable patterns.

• you can’t please all the people all the time (to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln)

• what is perfect? What may seem perfect to me may not be to someone else, so in reality perfection is pretty subjective in definition.

If you have tips or thoughts for leaving the perfection blues behind, please let us all know - we’d love to hear them.

And as a last word to quote Dr David M Burns

“Aim for success, not perfection. Never give up your right to be wrong, because then you will lose the ability to learn new things and move forward with your life.”