Completion Over Perfection
How often do we procrastinate with some project or task that we keep putting off? After a bit of rumination, we find the project or task starts to take over our bandwidth. We stew about it, contemplate about it, and may have excuses why we haven’t started yet. Soon we feel stressed about that unfinished thing that we simply can’t get done. Once we open the door to stress, we lose energy and allow the internal dialogue to knock us around.
What keeps us from initiating action? What stops us from completing a project? How do we “get back on the horse” once we get bucked off?
Let’s take a deeper dive into the different types of barriers that may keep us from moving forward on a project.
Internal barriers are those internal resistance factors that come up when we create our own internal blocks based on what we feel within ourselves.
- Doubt- not sure how to proceed. I don’t know how to do this.
- Confused- similar to doubt, which also leads to no action
- Insecurity – do I really have the skill to do this? Am I good enough to do this? What will people think of me if I don’t do it right.
- Resistance – the brakes-on energy that keeps us stuck and not starting.
- Fear – False Expectations Appearing Real where we create wild scenarios of what might happen if we do this wrong or make a mistake
- Blame- not taking responsibility when we wait for someone else to do it.
SOLUTION so we can take action:
Mistakes are how we learn; without a willingness to let the mistakes happen, we will not have the opportunity to get better.
Stay out of fantasy and false scenarios of what might or might not happen. Explore the vision of what’s possible when we can imagine how we will meet our challenge. Stay in the truth of what is here and now. Stop our imagination from running away into the future of what might happen.
If our inner dialogue is asking, “What am I going to do?” Empower ourselves by turning it around and ask ourselves, “How do I want to do this?”
Interpersonal Barriers are those that come up between us and our work demands, or us and our family, or our community and social commitments. Time boundaries are at the root of interpersonal barriers between us and the other people in our life.
- Our personal values will always bump up against each other- work-life-balance is an ideal and likely not a reality for busy working people with a full life.
- Family time vs. me time is a real conflict for many when we really love and dedicate ourselves to family time, and we also need that time for true self-care to recharge our energy
- Work can be very demanding with time and energy. We spend a huge chunk of our lives living inside our work demands. This is especially true if we value the quality of our work and contributions to our team.
- Health and moving the body can compete with everything else for our time. Getting into the habit of regular movement is a routine for some and a chore for others. It’s easy for work and family commitments to get in the way of exercise.
SOLUTION so we can take action:
Set clear time boundaries for work time, family time and me time. Put it in your calendar to schedule it.
Keep your bottom lines and agreements with yourself FIRST relative to the demands from other people in your life.
Have a backup plan to make time for yourself with an option and flexibility to move things around or adjust the time. For example, a walk around the block after dinner is still moving the body if you didn’t get to the gym that day.
Challenge: Can we be as loyal to ourselves as we are towards work and family members? If we are unwaveringly loyal to our work and our friends and family, where do we compromise our loyalty to ourselves? “To thine own self be true” takes a commitment to us as a priority.
Give ourselves some grace! On those days when life gets in the way of our plans to work on our project, reset our intent and stick to our plan to take action. Get back on the horse, as they say. Don’t quit. No step is too small for that project or task that we keep putting off.
If you started your project and can’t seem to get it done, don’t stop! Get back on the horse. No action is too small to move a project forward.
If time or people barriers get in the way of completion, acknowledge that life happens and recommit to your plan for completion of that project. Get back on the horse!
The longer a task sits not started or unfinished, the more stress and energy loss we will feel. When our inner dialogue is reminding us what we “should” be doing, we are in a values conflict with our priorities and likely feeling stress about it.
The final nugget to offer for any project we may feel daunted about- or something that we know we “should” be working on but we’re not…….Completion over Perfection is key. Don’t worry about getting it perfect; the high road is taking responsibility for completion.
Don’t wait for 100% solution to address a task; 80% solution is key to efficient completion. We can refine it later if necessary. Completion over perfection is where we gain energy from our effort.
We will empower ourselves with an increased measure of self-worth every time we overcome our challenges to bring a project to completion. If we get bucked off, get back on the horse and keep going. Don’t quit.
Call to Action: Schedule a call with Sara to learn how she can help you Master Your Stress!
Courage to Shine. How to Feel Confident Outside Your Comfort Zone available on Amazon and Audible.
Recent Comments