Is Perfection Hurting Your Business?

We wait until its perfect and we wait ……..and we wait………

Perfection is like waiting for an uptown train on the downtown side of the platform. It will be a long waiting game because quite simply it’s not going to happen.

There are too many variables in the mix to create perfection, so why are so many therapists so hell bent on waiting for things to be perfect before they will make them public or available to the world?

Yesterday I viewed the 2009 Archibald prize entrants and the one I thought was perfect, wasn’t the one the judges chose. Am I wrong? No, I just have a different view on what is perfect, as did all the other people voting in the public choice section.

Driving your business to a state of perfection is an impossible destination because the next person after you to view or read or experience your work will have a totally different take on what you have created.

I believe what is important is to get your work out for people to see and experience, take their adulation and criticism and build it into your next product or upgrade or new concept.

I am much the better for having viewed the picture I loved yesterday. That artist would have deprived me of that state of joy had they not put brush to canvas or not entered it in a contest where I had the opportunity to see it.

I love the story of the virtuoso violin player who walks off stage after a brilliant performance and announced “tonight I played that piece perfectly…..tomorrow night I will play it even better”.

As we grow and learn in this process called having a small business we can be like the violinist, understanding that even things we worked on “until they were perfect” will often have space to be improved somewhere in the future.

I have been reminded of this as I have been working more with live groups of people. One event in particular went hideously wrong despite everything being put in place “perfectly”.

The feedback from the audience at this event was that they loved that we shared the “imperfection” with them. It meant they could understand that things can go wrong but the world doesn’t end when they do.

What’s more it gave them the permission they needed to have a go themselves because the worst results they could get were the same disasters we did!

In fact one of the attendees coined this phase which has been quoted frequently by me ever since:

"It doesn’t have to be perfect
to be perfect"
Leighann Reitano
The Soul of One

"Imperfect is Perfect"
Andrea J Lee
Multiple Streams of Coaching Income

If the moment doesn’t have to be perfect, then perhaps some more of us can be encouraged to have a go at more things?

I don’t know about you but when I look at these quotes it takes the heat off any situation. It makes starting a newsletter, building a blog, putting together your first workshop or even taking your first paid client easier.

Now before you all get too excited I’m not saying this gives you permission to cut corners or be “barely good enough” but we could all embrace the thought that things could be out in marketplace being put to the test and improved upon as you go.

The first newsletter I wrote is VERY different to the ones I write now. I spent hours on my first efforts and they were professionally edited (no spellos or typos – my heart felt thanks to Patricia McKenzie who hauled me through that process).

These days I’ve accepted that there will be things that probably wouldn’t pass in an English test but I know the content adds value to your business. I’m happy if my “imperfect” message gets one of you off your butt and into action, the imperfect grammar then pales in significance to you taking action!

Where are you currently waiting for the “perfect moment” to occur to release something or do something?

Could you perhaps accept that imperfection is in fact perfect and move forward anyway?

In a synchronistic twist to the collection of quotes on imperfection, I was reading a book by a wonderful Indigenous Elder called Min Mia who is one of the keepers of women’s lore/law. She tops the scale for nailing the perfection concept in two words.

“Perfectly Imperfect”
Min Mia
Under the Quandong Tree

Utopia International Retreat

I have commenced the interview series of all the 20+ presenters for this years Utopia International Retreat. How to cool to be chatting with some of the leading edge healers on the planet and getting the inside scoop on what they will be presenting - tough job, someone's gotta do it!

Utopia International Retreat is a not for profit event and you are all welcome to attend and quite frankly you would be mad not to because it is AWESOME! Plus I'm doing the opening keynote so you can't help but love it!! :-)

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The author is Margaret Gill of THE ABUNDANT PRIVATE PRACTICES NEWSLETTER (c) Copyright 2008
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