People frequently ask me how I get so much done.
“You’ve only had your business for a year, and you’ve accomplished more than anyone else I’ve watched.”
I REALLY love productivity and efficiency, but I wasn’t always able to get so much done.
I never thought of myself as a perfectionist. To me a perfectionist was like Martha Stewart. Someone who does everything perfectly. And I definitely was no Martha Stewart.
But then someone redefined the idea of a perfectionist to me.
They asked, “if you know you won’t be able to do something ‘right’ do you still do it?”
My answer was a solid, “absolutely not.”
I waited to do things until I was sure I could do it “right.” This usually meant I waited forever. …or gave up altogether.
Since realizing that this is the kind of perfectionist I am, I’ve become more aware of my tendencies.
For a long time, I was just stuck by this tendency. “Now I know that I’m a perfectionist, but I don’t know what to do about it.”
Then I heard Jody Moore talk about doing B Minus work.
What if you put stuff out there that was just a B-? It’s still passing, but you don’t have to polish and perfect it to be A+.
This idea changed everything for me.
I started telling myself it was okay to do B- work. And I started working SO much more quickly.
It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t that suddenly I wasn’t afraid of making a fool of myself, or not worried that people would judge me. I still had those fears.
But I kept telling myself, “Done is better than perfect.”
I can’t help anyone at all if I don’t send things out into the world.
With my background teaching people about Agile, I knew it was important to get things out into the world to start testing.
Now I don’t even have to remind myself that B- is the goal. I don’t get anxious about putting out stuff that isn’t perfect.
I know that people will judge me, and that’s okay. Those aren’t the people I’m looking for.
…but the people I’m looking for are listening. And it’s my job to be there.