66. Choosing Progress Over Perfection

You've heard it said that "done is better than perfect." On this episode of The High Performancd Marketing podcast, I'll share how pursuing perfection is costing you and help you break through towards embracing progress.

Show References: Increase Your Impact Podcast - Justin Su'a

Angela Duckworth Grit Book

Transcript

Welcome To the High-Performance Marketing Podcast, a show committed to helping small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Host and Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

I was on a call today with some great marketing minds talking about using more video in our sales process. As the discussion went on, the facilitator of the call shared a comment that stuck out to me. “The video that is made with the imperfect background is better than the one that’s never made.”

Many of you, including myself, have experienced moments when you hesitated to take action or pursue your goals because you felt the need to wait until everything was perfect.

Striving for perfection can often hinder your progress and lead to taking no action at all and that’s when dissatisfaction continues to build up.

So on today’s episode of the podcast, I’m going to run you through how choosing perfection over progress is is costing you.

First, let’s think about why we tend to chase perfection at all and why it's important to shift our focus if we’re ever going to push through it.

The desire for perfection is deeply rooted in our fear of failure and judgment. We often believe that if we can achieve perfection, we will be immune to criticism or disappointment. However, the truth is that perfection doesn’t exist. Making it an elusive and unattainable goal. During a discussion last week with a client, I explained that I often have a second copywriter look over my work and that’s because I’m always a work in progress. I know that a second set of eyes from someone who’s been doing this much longer than I have, helps me keep improving.

So by shifting our focus to progress, we allow ourselves the freedom to learn, grow, and adapt. Justin Su’a the host of “The Increase Your Impact Podcast” and a mental performance coach to elite athlete always says that little by little, a little becomes a lot. And I’ve tried to keep that mindset with me whenever I’m working on a new goal.

See progress, even really slow progress, acknowledges that setbacks and mistakes are a natural part of the journey and that learning from them is important if we hope to keep getting better.

I also believe that no decision is a decision. Sometimes we have a big goal and we want to act on it, but allow fear to take over, or we allow not having the right equipment, the right education, enough time, enough money, insert the various roadblocks we set out for ourselves and now you don’t act - and decided to take no action, is a decision in itself.

Next, let’s talk about approaching challenges with a growth mindset. Angela Duckworth’s book speaks into this concept. She shares that any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal. And that’s inspiring isn’t it.

I’ve been working on dropping a few lbs. Due to the weight that I gained during 2020 and 2021. It’s been a lot of working through small habits one day at a time that have led to experiencing wins. For example, I’d stopped running. And was doing a lot of walking. Having set a new goal for myself to run again, and participate in a 5K in July, I’ve had to start building my conditioning again. It’s been rather difficult but I’m grateful for my coach who has helped me work on making progress by adding one or two minutes here to my running plan over the course of many weeks.

Setting realistic expectations and celebrating small wins along the way matters because it adds to the momentum you’re building. My nutrition and fitness coach asks me to send her three daily wins each night - and it absolutely contributes to my confidence and my abilities. Celebrating th