Mantra: “It’s good enough for now”
Have you ever been working on a really important project and found yourself getting stuck and just not making the sort of progress you want to? This was me a few years ago – I had something relatively straightforward to do, but ended up spending a WHOLE day on it – and at the end of that day, I still felt like I hadn’t got anywhere which made me feel really frustrated and unhappy with myself – in fact I was so frustrated I broke down in tears.
And I’ve done almost exactly the same thing more recently, with the creation and launch of my new Evergreen Sales Funnel. Except this time I caught my perfectionist tendencies earlier and I avoided the tears part!
Whenever this happens, and I start to see the wood for the trees again, I remember that this isn’t my first time getting into this pattern – and that I would benefit from one of my own lessons! So here’s a re-share of a video with the important message:
“it’s good enough for now”
Watch the video below or scroll down to read more
Here’s what I shared in the video:
Back when I created the video I was in the process of creating some introductory training content for what was then a new membership site and I’d got my video kit all set up ready to do just that.
The membership was built around a pathway called “The 5 Stages of a Successful Heart-Centred Business” which enables me to take members on a journey from joining the membership through to creating a genuinely successful and sustainable, heart-centred business.
The next step of the plan was to create an introductory video training to talk people through these five stages of business, and share the things that I think are important to know and think about when it comes to starting and running a small business.
So far so good – Except I got stuck. Particularly on the first day I just didn’t seem to be getting any real momentum. I’d spent a day beforehand planning out what I wanted to say in the videos, but by the end of the day, I didn’t feel I’d made any progress, and was feeling incredibly frustrated.
I didn’t see what was happening until I went for a walk the next morning and realised that the reason I was getting stuck was because I had slipped back into some old perfectionist tendencies and that I had forgotten a very, very important mantra, which I leaned on very heavily during my first two years in business…
“Good enough is perfect”
If I hadn’t been able to live by this mantra “Good enough is perfect” during those first two years, I don’t think I would ever have run my first workshop, or my first webinar to sell my first online programme or made my first sales from a live talk. I wouldn’t have created and delivered my online course, or run my first big live in-person event, and I definitely wouldn’t have launched my first business mentoring programme!
I became comfortable (ish!) in those first two years with being willing to get moving and putting things out there even when things were not perfect.
And when I say they were not perfect, they were really not perfect. My branding and my online presence were nothing like they are today – honestly, they were terrible! . I didn’t have the money, the resources, or the team to do things that looked glossy and professional. So everything was a bit cobbled together. I didn’t have the right tech set up. My course sat on an ugly password protected page on my website instead of in a members area, I didn’t have a proper sales page. I ran workshops without branded Powerpoints. If I look back, much of what I put out there just didn’t look great – at all.
And I ALWAYS felt that my training content wasn’t “good enough”, that I needed more time to get it better – yet I kept on launching courses and running live events anyway.
In fact in less than 2 years I did my first live talk to sell from speaking, ran my first webinar, created 3 separate online course, ran 4 live events and sold out my first two higher level business mentoring groups.
So much of it was far from perfect, was not glossy, didn’t really have a look and feel that I was happy with and quite simply wasn’t “good enough” according to my own high standards.
Yet I got on with it and took action. And it was the action I took in those first two years of business that really propelled me forward to where I am now.
It was when I was out having a walk yesterday morning that it suddenly came to me that the reason I was struggling so much to create this video content was that I had managed to completely forget that all important early mantra to help me overcome my perfectionist tendencies.
But since then, there’s no going back and I’ve actually adapted my mantra a little to…
“Good enough for now”
So in this particular instance, I continued with recording my introductory content, but without worrying about whether it was perfect, whether I was getting the exact message across in the exact way I meant to, or worrying too much about the position or angle of the camera, how it would look or whether there would be an awkward hesitation or a pause or somewhere where I stumbled over my words.
All of those places where I felt naturally inclined to go back and re-record, I said to myself, “Good enough for now, just keep going, keep recording. It’s good enough for now!”
There are 3 reasons it’s important to get comfortable with “good enough for now”:
1. I can always change it later.
If I get it “good enough for now”, I can always come back and recreate this content later on.
2. I don’t want to delay things.
If I don’t opt for “Good enough for now” and I slip back into my perfectionist tendencies, there’s a very high chance that I won’t have my content created in time and it will delay the actual creation and build of new material for the membership site. That, in turn, will delay me being able to launch the membership on time, which will delay me being able to welcome in a new batch of members and give them the support in growing their businesses that I know I’m able to give. Which will delay me receiving this revenue that my business needs to survive.
3. My clients will be happy even if I’m not.
The other thing I need to remind myself is that when we are perfectionists, we have a tendency to not be completely happy with anything that’s less than a 100% of the quality we know we are capable of putting out there if we just worked harder, re-recorded it, made it a little bit more perfect – or hired a professional production team!!! But actually, our clients are usually more than happy – even delighted – with what we would consider being only 70% of our highest quality work. And so it becomes so much more important that we’re willing to put our work out there when it’s less than perfect in order that our clients can benefit from what we have to share.
Do you have perfectionist tendencies too?
When I made this video, I created it spontaneously because I got to thinking that if I really needed this reminder today and if I had fallen into this trap of tying myself up in knots and delaying getting a really important piece of work done because I was slipping into my perfectionist tendencies, perhaps you would benefit from the same reminder.
What are you currently working on that you are allowing to be delayed or that you’re getting stuck on because of a tendency to want to get it perfect?
Can you commit to adopting the mantra “Good enough for now”, knowing that your good enough – is actually perfect for so many of the people who are going to benefit from it? And also with the knowledge that you can go back at any time and improve it? For example, my first free giveaway on my website wasn’t great, but I got something up so I was growing my list – and six months later I recreated it so that it was of a higher quality. It was the same with my online course. The first time I ran it I just “got it out there”. The second time I ran it I re-created it to be that little bit better – but at least I got started.
What will be the impact to your business of continuing to delay this, rather than getting it good enough for now?
Here’s my challenge to you today…
What is “good enough for now” that you can actually get completed today or this week to keep you moving forward? I look forward to hearing from you – just post in the comments below!
Create a Business you Love – Free PDF Guide
Because of my own journey on the way to creating a business that I love, I’m all about teaching you how to create a sustainable business that you actually enjoy running – rather than falling out of love with it along the way, and maybe burning out too. In this guide I share the 4 key elements you need to consider if you are to create a business you can fall in love – and STAY in love with.
You can get the free guide here
15 Comments
As Michele (above) knows I am working on money blocks so think my mantra is I am worth it!
“Good enough is perfect because for clients my 60-70% will be perfect and because this way I am helping myself to not stop but keep moving / to start moving even if I’m not feeling perfectly capable”
…is my new mantra. Abbreviated to “Good enough is perfect”.
Thank you, Catherine!
I was being stuck with just everything for months now, because I never felt perfectly capable to do all of those new things that I need and wish to do!
Hi Katja
Thanks for taking the trouble to comment, and I’m really happy that this video was an important reminder for you as well as me and that it’s got you unstuck. Because, really, are any of us EVER perfect? And also how often do we expect perfection in others? It’s usually only ourselves that we hold to these unrealistically high standards… here’s to being “good enough”!
Thank you for this video Catherine: ‘Good enough for now ‘ is my new screensaver 🙂
Ooh, what a brilliant idea! I really should copy that…. 🙂
Thanks, still delaying writing because of worrying that its not good enough…so off to write because it is good enough
Hi Anne
Great to hear that this video got you moving on your writing – it definitely got me moving on my videos too!
Absolutely perfectly (can we use that word? ?) timed Catherine! Thank you for this video today. I am procrastinating on putting my first ever offer out for my business because I want it to be perfect, which then in my mind means I won’t be judged! This is all mindset blocks that I realise and am working on. I’ll just keep chanting ‘good enough’!
Hi Alix
“Good enough is Perfect” used to be my favourite mantra – now it’s shifted to “good enough for now”. I’m glad that this video was so perfectly timed for you… and hopefully you’ve overcome the procrastination monster and got your offer out to the world by now! And of course remember it doesn’t matter if some people judge you – that’s probably always going to happen. What matters is that you are serving and available to help those people who are your “ideal clients” and who most need your help.
I’m definitely procrastinating right now! I think I have a really good idea with Caterpillars learning groups but I want to get my launch right this time round. But tbh I don’t really know what right looks like or feels like. Plus someone has challenged the price of my class! Aagh!!!! Deep breath…..
Hi Vicki
Since you don’t know what “right” looks or feels like, what about the possibility that there is no such thing as “right”? Just getting going, seeing what happens, and then using that as feedback to help you tweak it as you go along and to improve it next time around? There are no guarantees, and ultimately the best possible feedback is the response you get from your potential clients – and of course the worst outcome of all would be letting the need to get it “right” prevent you from getting it out there at all.
Hi Catherine,
I’ve just reread this blog and was surprised to see that I had already commented. The good news is I did get going with Caterpillars. It’s now morphed a bit (expanded?) into Calm Caterpillars Relaxation classes because I responded to a request in a Facebook group. I had the same perfectionist feelings all over again. I didn’t think the first class I ran was very good at all but the following week one of the mums said to me that her daughter had asked her every day if she could go to Caterpillars again. I was delighted. My new challenge is to get the classes ready for a preschool 12 week programme that I have already agreed to do!!!!
Whoop, that’s brilliant that you got it going Vicki! And you know, it’s amazing how the things we don’t think are perfect at all are just perfect for our clients and customers – so often it’s them that need to remind us (and it’s their opinion that ultimately counts, not ours!)
Wow, how timely was this? Thanks Catherine, just what I needed x
Hi Michele
That’s great that this was so timely. I hope you’ve got some really great “good enough” stuff out since reading it!