Crippled by perfection… and fear of failure?

Share This Post

How’s your lockdown been (so far)? Were you inspired to take up that online course you’ve been meaning to, or did you knit a lovely scarf just in time for the summer?

😃 Maybe you baked banana bread for the first (and last) time in your life? I know I’ve done at least one of those things and felt quite smug with myself. For a while.

But then you have get back to reality, right? And if you’re in position to do it, do some awesome pushing-your-business-and-brand-forward kind of work.

Then what happens? Well, for me, I PLAN THE SHIT out of my business and ALL the next steps I need to take. And oh… my… God, there are a mammoth number of steps.

My two main projects (read: issues) have been to get my personal and business branding sorted and my website updated with new content – which obviously both go hand in hand.

But I feel crippled, trying to get everything perfect and just right.

I know nothing ever is… will be… or has ever been perfect. Except for Fleabag.

I have read all the articles about doing ‘good enough’. I understand it all and it all makes sense.

So by writing this and saying it out loud and I hope that it sticks.

And I learn that getting the website copy to 80% there is good enough. Figuring out my actual brand – who I am, why I’m doing this, what I stand for, who I serve – is also perfectly good enough right now.

It’s not like I can’t change any of this stuff later as it’s all online.

“But what if I get cancelled?”

Ladies, gentlemen and non-binaries… we have a winner.

My inability to get past perfection comes down to fear of failure. There’ll be typos everywhere, something I didn’t remember right, I might sound stupid, arrogant or not come across remotely funny or professional.

When I write my reasons (read: excuses) out like that, it does give me some real step-back-from-myself perspective. I’m a big advocate of writing stuff down to get it out of your head – thanks GTD David Allen. I’m doing it more often with personal/mindset issues as well as tasks. It works because it makes them more real (otherwise: denial).

Now it’s easier to line them all up and debunk them, one-by-one. At the least, I’ll try and understand where each insecurity comes from and deal with those individually.

So lessons I have taught myself are…

  • good enough is good enough
  • you can change things in the future
  • mistakes happen and you always learn something from them
  • write stuff down and stop MSU (making shit up) about yourself!

Has anyone else been where I am (soon to be was)?

Subscribe for the latest news

More To Explore

How to get more time and focus

How to get more time and focus Helping people get focused and organised to work more efficiently is my thing. When a client – let’s

Learn more about how we can help you get started with Notion

Let's talk