People often joke about being a perfectionist and the innate desire to have everything just right. The truth is, if perfection is your main goal, progress is severely impeded. Seeking perfection will stall any chances you have of success and wreak havoc on your solo entrepreneurial endeavors.
Instead of aiming for the impossible, set your target on a more attainable goal. That may seem easier said than done. The constant demand for perfection isn’t like a light switch you can just turn on and off on a whim. It’s probably something you’ve dealt with in more than one area of your life, and perhaps you’ve been like it all your life.
However, if progress in your new business is important enough, you’ll at least give it some thought and hopefully make some changes to stop hindering your progress.
The Perfectionist Attitude
Not sure if perfection is the cause for stalling progress? Take a look at some of the most common and prevalent characteristics and see if anything applies to your mindset.
Be honest with yourself and really dig deep. Sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking perfection is a good thing, so it’s a little more difficult to identify with it as a problem.
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- All or nothing approach – Do you dive in head first and give a task everything you’ve got? Does it become a task you can’t complete due to all the improvements you need to still make?
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- Unrealistic standards – Do you find yourself setting goals for your business that aren’t quite realistically attainable? For instance, sales or production goals. Perhaps nothing is quite good enough which is why sales are low.
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- Unmet goals – When you set a goal, do you find most of them are left unmet? Do you have too many goals, with unrealistic expectations?
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- Inability to make decisions – Is decision making something you struggle with due to the potential outcome not living up to your standard no matter which choice you make?
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- Demand control – Do you have trouble letting go of the reigns in various aspects of your business or micromanaging every aspect? Are you the control freak because no-one can do it as perfectly as you?
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- You’re doing it wrong! – When you delegate a task to someone else, do you feel the burning desire to just do it yourself because you feel their results will not live up to your standards? Do they do the task differently to the way you would therefore, it’s wrong? (Even though it probably isn’t.)
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- Defensive – When someone points out your incessant need to be perfect, or heaven forbid a fault you may have made, do you react defensively?
- Procrastination – Do you find yourself putting off tasks you believe you can’t devote 100% of your attention to, or feel like you might not deliver a satisfactory result if you do?