Why Good is Better than Best
This blog post is brought to you by a recovering perfectionist – me!
Good, better, best. Never let it rest. Until your good is better and your better is your best.
I don’t know if like me, you were forced to recite this little ditty at school when you were growing up.
But fairly recently I’ve come to learn ways in which this mindset has actually been holding me back in my business, instead of propelling me forward into greatness.
Last week I held my first webinar to promote my new Thrive Productivity Group Coaching program that’s commencing next month. (You can find out more here). Now, I’ve done webinars before as a guest speaker and I’ve also worked behind the scenes many times for clients doing all the back-end tech set-up and support. However this was the first time I had created a webinar, from scratch, all for myself in my own business.
It’s something I have been wanting to do for a long time but kept putting off… “It’s too much work”, “the timing isn’t right”, blah, blah, blah. But if I’m 100% honest, the reason I hadn’t done a webinar for myself before now is because I’m a perfectionist (well, recovering) and got caught up in the idea that if I was going to do it, it had to be perfect.
Can you think of a better way to kill your dreams?!?
B minus work
Anyway, to get over myself and ultimately get it done, I remembered a concept I had learned a year or so ago from my coach Brooke Castillo, called B minus work. The idea being that you get whatever it is you need to get done to a standard of “good” rather than “great”. In other words B- instead of A+ work. The ultimate goal of course being that you GET IT DONE.
And while it was challenging for me, it worked! Applying this principle allowed me to step out of my own way and get everything setup and ready to go, by the time it was due, without overworking and stressing myself out.
I had lots of things I wanted to go back and tweak and improve along the way, but I didn’t let myself. The work I had done was good, and I was determined to accept that and get on with things.
Letting it go
Letting go of my perfectionist standards not only allowed me to get past my own fear (what if it’s not good enough?) and get it done, it also opened me up to receiving feedback in a way I never have before.
All of a sudden I was actually excited to ask for feedback, and reached out to some of my closest friends, who I knew would also be harshly honest if I asked them. And I did! Not something I have ever been excited about when I worked to my usual A+ (*cough* perfectionist *cough*) standard.
Knowing I hadn’t done my best work, my ego didn’t get in the way, but also, neither did my harsh inner critic. And she very rarely takes any time off!
Better IS best
Sure, things didn’t go as amazingly as I would have liked them to, but they did go really well. And reviewing all the moving parts of my webinar (and I’m talking landing pages, emails, slides, workbooks, social media posts, even the way I presented), instead of being a painful and uncomfortable experience it felt more like a fun, problem solving exercise.
I sat down and wrote out my lessons learned list – what worked, what didn’t work and what will I try differently next time? Cause that’s really the key, isn’t it? We want to always be open to learning and growing from our past experiences. Making our good, better but always keeping ourselves open to learning and growing from each and every experience.
So, my challenge to you is – if there’s something you’ve been putting off that you really want to get done, try aiming for a good B minus standard instead of a great A+. I promise you’ll learn so much more from the experience!
