What if I Make Tasks, Projects and Everything Else Perfect?
When we try to make thing perfect, we get caught up in doing every detail, doing lots of research and in striking to make thing better the first time. We just can’t help it, because almost nobody loves failure and things that do not work the first time.
In this article, I am going to show you ways to deal with procrastination and avoid making things perfect so that you can get the job done in the first place, without worrying about holes, bugs and minor details in the first place.
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Why this is Important?
Perfection is the enemy of progress. When we strive in making things perfect, we lose the ability to take action. That’s because when we focus on every detail, even hole that supposed to be filled, before we start that project, we get exhausted at the end, and we do not find enough time to move things forward.
And often times, because of the fear of failure, we do not get things started in the first place, because we are not sure if that’s perfect or worth enough. Always something new and better comes along the way, and we can’t make that decision to get started.
We try to decide which tool would perform better, which system would perform better and which detail would be appropriate for the occasion.
This is what I call, “the loop of the inevitability.” We are running in circles all the time, not knowing what’s better, and what method to use in the first place. So we end up doing nothing at all.
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How to Fix that?
Well, there’s a simple way to avoid making things perfect and that is testing first, then make things “perfect.”
When we test a headline, an article, a video or any other medium of information, based on measurements and results we can decide if that was good or not.
Because often what things seem to be “perfect” to us, they do not seem to perform really well. So we end up rationalizing and coming up with reasons that are beyond the scope of this article :-]
Expect that Nothing is Going to Turn Well the First Time
That’s reality, always the first try is the worst, especially if you haven’t done anything like that in the past. How many times you find yourself doing things better, because you gain more experience, more confidence and see actual results, based on that?
Good Practice Makes Things Better
There’s a lie out there that “practice makes perfect.” If you practice WRONG, you make things worse.
Let me tell you a quick story…
A student goes to his martial arts master and asks him the following question, “Sensei, can I practice at home, doing the things you teach us, so that I can be a better student?” The martial arts master looked at the student and replied, “well, if you do that, and if you learn something wrong, because you do not have my guidance, you are going to learn it in a bad way, so you are going to make my job harder to teach you the right way, and you have to unlearn what you already have, because form in martial arts is fundamental.”
Just as the martial arts master, you want to take a good practice, by testing and tweaking your performance, because you are your own master. You do not have someone by your side to show you the “right way.” We have to figure out for ourselves, and the best way to do that is by testing different things in our business. (See “Why Is Your Business Dead” article)
“Failure is to Instruct, Not to Obstruct” – Brian Tracy
The fear of failure is one of the major reasons why we try to make things perfect the first time. We do not want to fail, it does not feel good, and often times we quit trying if things do not work the first time.
What I’ve learned over the years is that failure is my friend. It moves me one step closer to where I want to go and be. That’s because if you fail, you LEARN what did not work before, and that’s a lesson by itself.
Honoring failure is like honoring your efforts, because we become all that we can be from failures, adapting, tweaking and re-adjusting things. That’s how we learn. Success is not by accident for most people, because they failed so many times, finding the flaws along the way, not repeating the same mistakes over and over again, until they found the way and sticking to it.
If you have fear that something isn’t going to work, ask yourself, “What would happen if that does not work?”
When you consider the possibility of failure, you are open to new things, and trying new methods, without getting stuck in choosing the “right one.”
If you want to boost your productivity, literary from day 1, I highly recommend, you get Brian Tracy’s book, “Eat The Frog – 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.” This book changed the way I think about my work, and helped me become dramatically more productive as a result. Stop making things perfect once and for all.
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