Most of us have this desire, although to a varying degree to be outstanding, to be excellent at what we do, in our outcomes, in our product or service. And why not?, because people out there like & are attracted to what is good over anything that is lesser in any aspect. This innate desire for EXCELLENCE is good and drives us to offer good stuff but when this desire tend to stretch towards ‘be the best’, that it starts to hold us back until we fix every missing element in what we do. This virtue ‘to be perfect’ is an elusive one because we find ourselves never able to fix everything because there is always something to be fixed. We land into never ending loop of perfectionism and endless procrastination.
Do you resonate with this pattern in any part of what you do & how you think? If yes, I invite you to share with others, how does it make you feel? how does it affect you? what does it cost you?
In my experience this pattern has significant devastating effect on us. Some of the consequences of this pattern that I collected in my experience working with people are:
- Lost time
- Lost opportunity
- Lower self-confidence
- Self-doubt
- Hit on self-esteem
- Lack of self-belief or self-trust
- Giving up on what they are passionate about
The longer this pattern stays with us, the affects tend to multiply.
- It tends to become deeper sub-conscious pattern and it starts to affect us deeper before we realize,
- Since it is at a sub-conscious level, it also reflected in other areas of our life.
- & lastly another significant way it affect us is when we are not finishing things, things start to accumulate and soon we get overwhelmed by the thought that there is so much to do and nothing is getting done.
- The more things accumulate, the more they gets delayed and soon the challenge looks daunting.
It is significant to note that it would have widespread devastating effect at a subconscious & conscious level unless you fix it urgently. I hope you do not settle with your default, subconscious response to this situation and give up on your dreams and things that you wanted to do.
So, how do we deal with it?
Since it is happening at a subconscious level, it is often difficult that we become aware of this pattern on our own. Since many of us also listen to thinkers, motivators or read self-help books, & we do come to become aware of it. However, I have observed that since every individual’s experience and relation to these deeper belief is so unique that many a times people are not able to understand what is causing it, accept and make the necessary shift on their own. Working on oneself has limited success.
I highly recommend working with a coach on a individual basis because in this case you are able to unpack your personal experience in a safe environment and accept and make the necessary changes.
In any case, below I offer 4 strategies or shifts in thinking & working that could apply and start working on these un-resourceful beliefs.
Hope you find these quick strategies useful. I invite you to share your experience applying them in the comments below or ask any question you may have. I will make an attempt to answer those questions in my next blogs, if not already covered.
- Eat the elephant in pieces. One another reason why people dont start or finish what they start is because they take up too big a task to finish. Bigger the tasks, larger number of open ends and aspects to consider. A workable strategy to adopt in this case is to break down your big goal into smaller less daunting, achievable pieces or modules. Make it easy for yourself. Like you run a marathon of 42 kms one step at a time, chunk down the big dream into smaller pieces.
- Second strategy would be to ‘define finishing criteria‘ for the outcome of the goal. Define clear criteria for the output and when the criteria are met, call it done. You may want to do a review, that is ok but release it out as your first version. This strategy has been applied by authors, mobile phone manufacturers, app-developers so successfully. Authors typically add new ideas or restructure their thoughts in their books by releasing several editions. Imagine if an app-developer waits to fix all the bugs, we will never have so many useful apps. They release the app and keep working in the background to improve the app in the next version. In case you are working on something which is one-time output or report, align with your client on the completion criteria. Having a clear criteria gives you a outline of what is that is must. First aim to fulfill those requirements and if time permits, do anything else that you can accomplish. Know that EXCELLENCE is a journey. Aim to be better than what you did yesterday.
- In case you are working on something completely on your own, I recommend you to decide a completion date. In the absence of a completion date, you will find that you will keep extending the time and work will keep expanding and you will never find the task finishing.
- Lastly, success rate almost sky-rockets when you get an accountability partner. Find somebody who cares for your outcomes and your progress and enroll them as your accountability partner. Accountability partner in simple terms means somebody who checks on you and hold you accountable for what you said you are going to do and remind you to do that. Find the partner or a coach and share your goals and plan and empower them to be your accountability partner to champion you in your endeavour.
Start what you intend to and Finish what you start!
