Strive for Progress Over Perfection
I was traveling through the state of Virginia recently and decided to take a break since the freeway had slowed down because of an accident or something. So, I decided to grab a smoothie and stretch my legs by wandering around a park in downtown Roanoke. It had been a beautiful drive in the quintessential way that autumn on the East Coast is…. and, I found myself sitting under a gorgeous Weeping Willow by a pond with some ducks. I’d spent the 6 or so hours driving and listening to podcasts and audio books. I love a good road trip! I have been to all 50 states in America and driven across America and Canada close to 20 times, and road tripped through Sonora, in northern Mexico)
Well, I was driving I heard something that really provoked me and the words echoing through my mind and heart were these:
“Progress Over Perfection”
The Power of Progress Over Perfection
I don’t know where you’re at in life or in what way you are or are not moving towards your goals. You may or may not be an entrepreneur but if you have a dream and you want to see that dream become reality you are going to have to make a decision of how to make progress toward that dream. Most people are content to talk about their dreams and live in the realm of fairy tales and live in their imagination in dreamland rather than finding a way to take action and move toward those dreams.
.So many entrepreneurs in the business realm, like my husband and I and our friends have big goals and are high achievers. But, it is easy to get stuck on the treadmill and find it hard to make progress. I say this as someone who has struggled with this for years. The struggle of entrepreneurship is unlike any job you may have ever had before except the role of being a new mother or father.
Entrepreneurship is a difficult beast. And, It is especially difficult when you are starting out because you are the business in every way. You wear every “hat” imaginable. You fulfill every role needed whether that is sales, marketing, training, or research and development. You are the set up crew, the clean up crew, the receptionist who answers every phone call, text message, and email. You are the office manager who handles accounts receivable and accounts payable. You are the social media manager who posts every company post and answers every inquiry. You are the product specialist who has to deliver the products and services that you sell with a smile on your face. And, the list goes on and on.
If you are blessed and your business begins to grow you will find that you are constantly thinking about your business, constantly working on your business, and constantly talking about your business with your spouse, your family, your friends, and even strangers. Your business often becomes a part of you in a 24/7 kind of way. It can be hard to separate your life from your business when it becomes a part of you on this level. You find that there is always something that you can be doing or something you can be doing better. This is the treadmill! Always working on your business. Always thinking about your business. Always talking about your business.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am an entrepreneur through and through and the fact that I am often living, eating, and sleeping my business is one of the things I love about entrepreneurship. My husband and I own three businesses and through the years we have been married we have worked in these business in three different industries and managed them at different levels. (In addition to this speaking/consulting business we own a high-end creative renovation business and multiple food carts that specialize in high-volume events and white-glove catering). I love that we can bring our kids to work with us. I love that we can homeschool on the road on business trips. I love the fact that it isn’t necessarily two live in different worlds. But, it’s also one of the great challenges.
The Definition of Disapointment
When you’re starting out and learning anything new it can feel like failure after failure after failure. Part of learning is discovering what not to do -which essentially means there will be a lot of failure. Learning is an experiential process. As much as we wish it were more like osmosis and just naturally assimilated, the fact is that human beings learn by watching and experimenting — over and over again.
One definition of Disappointment is “Expectations minus Reality.”
Disapointment = Expectations – Reality
Disappointment is the gap between your expectation and the reality of the situation. There is a tension that every entrepreneur must manage and that involves holding our expectation (which is often the dream or vision we have) with the reality of how much progress we have made toward that dream. If our focus in on the great gap then we will be holding a lot of disappointment in ourself.
But, if we can learn to break the journey down into not just benchmark goals but bitesize goals and steps we can learn to celebrate the little wins and celebrate the baby steps. We can focus on the successes more and the failures less. And, ultimately, we can decrease the amount of disappointment we are carrying.
Perfection is Paralyzing
We can’t hold that tension as disappointment. We have to change how we view the situation. We have to flip things around and focus on what we CAN celebrate. Celebrating your progress is essential to growth. This means you have to look for things to celebrate and take time to acknowledge those wins even in very small ways. When you do this you focus on the progress you are making rather than the disappointment between where you are in relation to the perfect place you have dreamed about.
If I were to focus on only publishing a “perfect” blog I might never publish this blog post or any other. But, if I can focus on publishing the best blog that I can today in a reasonable amount of time then I will at least publish something.
Learn to Do the Best You Can With Where You are At
One of the keys to progress is learning to do the best that you can do each day with the skills that you have developed thus far. If, I can challenge myself each time I publish a blog to keep doing the things that successful bloggers do and learn new skills along the way then I can focus on the journey of becoming a better blogger. If I were to focus on writing the perfect blog I might become completely paralyzed and never publish one. And, when a person gets paralyzed they stop growing and they stop moving forward.
It’s worth repeating.
Learn to do the best you can with where you are at.
What does this mean? What does it mean to do the best you can with where you are at? It means to do the best you can with the time, energy, resources, and education that have right now. Do your best today and do your best tomorrow and the next day and the next. And, when you can invest more energy, resources, and education into your growth then your ability to do your “best” will also increase. The standard of “doing your best” will grow as you grow.
I write this as someone who has been paralyzed by perfection in different ways in different seasons of my life. Sadly, I know too well what it is like to be paralyzed because I didn’t think my best was good enough –especially in comparison to someone else’s “best”.
Comparison With Others Will Never Help You
Comparison is a dangerous game and you will never win when you compare yourself to others. It’s never a level playing field. We have all been dealt different cards in life and part of learning to play the game of life is learning how to play your best with the cards you’ve been dealt. The only thing we should focus on is comparing ourself to who we were yesterday. Have we grown personally or professionally? Have we learned new skills? Have we taken new risks? Have we made new friends or maintained the richness of old friendships for another day?
Progress Builds Momentum.
Perfection Hinders Growth.
Progress Always Trumps Perfection.
Stop Grinding and Start Growing
“Grinding” or “the Grind” is the lingo used these days to indicate how hard entrepreneurs and creators work on their business. These words are deep words evoking the intensity that people experience working on their business. But, the key is to move away from “grinding” at your business and become someone who is alive doing your business. The goal is to enjoy having a business like a parent would enjoy having a baby. When a parent is “grinding” away being a parent -their is no joy in the process. There is no fulfillment in the journey. It isn’t even a chore anymore it feels like slavery. No one every became a great parent by feeling like parenting was a chore or slavery. Great parents are ones who love the journey. And great parents generally raise great children. If you want to build a great business then learning to enjoy the process is essential.
Learn to Enjoy Your Business
Learning to enjoy your business doesn’t come easy to everyone. It probably comes easier to some than others….like parenting comes easier to some more than others. Learning to enjoy your business and the journey of growing an dbuilding a business invovles learning to be kind to yourself and learning to celebrate the Little Wins.
Learn to Celebrate in Small Ways the Little Wins
I have been learning to celebrate the little wins more and more in recent years and trying to encourage my husband and family to do this more with me.
Humans are Truly Motivated Only by Pain or Pleasure
The fact is we as humans are really only motivated by pain and pleasure. If something is painful then we are not going to move in that direction. It doesn’t even have to be other people beating us up about stuff or being disappointed in u. The truth is, when we beat ourselves up for our failures, and when we beat ourselves up for for how we disappoint ourselves well we’re not going to want to move in the direction of our dreams. It’s only by taking steps and celebrating those wins, building gratitude, and living from a place of gratitude that we’re going to be able to fuel ourselves on that journey toward our dreams.
If all you have this standard of perfection for yourself and all you are doing is focusing on the disappointment between your expectation (your dream) and where your currently are and kicking yourself or beating yourself up because you didn’t try harder or you didn’t do more or you didn’t take a bigger risk, then you will never move very quickly toward that dream. Your dream becomes a constant source of pain.
But, to actually do something and move toward your goals to take a step one step towards your dream is a win and it’s worth celebrating. And, I have to remind myself of that on a regular basis in multiple ways —to take a second step, to take five steps, to take 10 steps —to pick yourself up when you have fallen down. That’s a win when you don’t let what somebody tells you, or what others say, or maybe how you’ve been slandered about something, knock you down. That’s a win. And progress is winning.
We have to find little ways to celebrate and mark our progress. We have to learn to be kind to ourselves. When you focus on being grateful for how far you’ve come and you focus on really celebrating each step of how far you’ve come it’s so much easier to move yourself in that direction. When there’s gratitude and joy it increases our pleasure and our experience of a situation and it builds excitement and momentum.
Learn to Celebrate Little Steps
First of all it’s important not to wait to celebrate the big things. Learn to celebrate the little things and each step a long the way. It doesn’t have to be a big celebration it can be something simple. What makes it important is that you and other recognize that you are celebrating something. Celebrating a win means speaking about it and acknowledging the milestone –it can mean cheering yourself and each other on (if you are in business with others). You can celebrate with a special drink that is meaningful to you and others (coffee, tea, hot chocolate, or wine) or special food (breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a dessert) or by doing something special (hosting a party, going for a drive, going to the beach or to see a friend) or by buying something special for yourself or someone else (ie. flowers, a card, a plant, a book, a magazine)
It’s not what you do that is important it is that you do something to honor or celebrate the milestone of your progress. It’s important to recognize how far you’ve come and reflect back on your journey and focus on your accomplishments –not on how far you have to go!
Celebrating can mean cheering each other on. I’ve been doing that with a coaching client right now who has made some incredible progress. I have been repeatedly verbalizing her accomplishment in business and highlighting the value and significance of the milestone. By helping her to remember and reflect on this milestone I can help her see the incredible progress she has made in business.
I don’t know where you’re at in life what how you’re moving towards your goals. You may or may not be an entrepreneur but if you have a dream and you want to see that dream become reality you are going to have to make a decision of how to make progress toward that dream. And, to be honest the most people it’s easy to talk and and let your dreams live in the realm of fairy tales and let your dreams remain in dreamland and just talk about them.
It can be really hard to stop and celebrate little wins but these wins are what marks our progress.
Look at your progress. Look at your wins. And, find ways to celebrate the accomplishment that you have made.
I hope this gives or adds a spark and adds some fuel to your dreams and/or your business today.
Remember to Celebrate the Wins and Fuel Your Dreams
