Have you ever struggled with getting stuck in moving forward because you needed everything to be just right?
Maybe you stayed at a job too long? Are you sticking out a relationship because it will be too difficult financially to go it alone? Perhaps you haven’t started a project because you don’t know where to start or not sure what you need?
Often we find ourselves in a holding pattern waiting for perfection to strike before we take action. We freeze up in anticipation or fear of failing, doing something wrong, or looking silly. When we act like this, we in turn, invite more of this into our lives.
I am sure you can relate to that downward spiral… I personally have gotten stuck in it over this last month. With making some changes in my business I found myself striving for perfection. I wanted all of the offerings to be just right, I wanted all of the messaging to on point. I could put anything out until I had it all completely perfect. Well what happened? I did pretty much nothing — no blog posts, very few videos, little talking about what I was doing… or hoping to do.
In turn, this being stuck striving for perfection has put production, growth, expansion on hold. I feel like everything around me has come to a screeching halt!
So what is the answer then? How do we get ourselves out of this search for perfectionism… which by the way… perfect does not really exist! I know I have been chasing after it for nearly 30 years and have yet to find it in just about anything — not consistently anyways!
What I have found to work much better is to strive for excellence! Now some of you may be going, “wait Jess isn’t that the same thing??” No, it isn’t. You see excellence reaches to be extremely good! There is room for improvement. Additionally, what I have found is that when striving for excellence you can be more in the moment — it allows for you to focus on the now.
I have always found perfection to be a long-term, overall sense of being and way of life. That no matter what you did in this moment there were always so many more moments ahead of you just waiting for you to mess up and screw up your perfect streak.
When we focus on excellence, we can zero in on multiple different areas of our life at once without ever feeling like we are failing at all of them.
So where can you focus on practicing excellence in your life??
- Mindset/Thoughts – are you thinking positively, being a proactive-problem solver, focusing on results, and encouraging yourself every day?
- Communication/Words – are you building others up, are you saying what you mean in a clear and concise way, do you talk about positive, contributing ideas?
- Actions – are your actions in alignment with your words, are you living in your values, have you helped someone today, are you creating the world you want to see?
When it comes to our family, friends, co-workers and strangers we interact with, we can be their guiding light! We can show them how to make changes. We MUST be the leader who initiates the change in our worlds. Some may be resistant at first, but those who come around are truly the ones we need around us to make a difference in the world (ours and the bigger world).
So I challenge you to strive for excellence in the individual parts of your life and let go of reaching for perfection. Let us know how your life starts to change when you change your focus!!