Navigating Perfection

When it comes to your business, are there areas where you’re trapped by perfection?

This is the case for so many people building a business and it’s something I’ve struggled with in my business as well.

While the intention of wanting to get something right and produce a flawless outcome/experience/result has a well-intended purpose, perfection has a tight grip with no room for error.

In one scenario, you want to create an offer for people to come work with you, but you’re scared people won’t pay for your services without the right offer to say ‘yes’ to.

When you believe that there’s a right offer that people will pay for, you fear the idea of getting it wrong and put yourself under a lot of pressure to get it right.

You underprice your services to be ‘affordable’, overstuff your offers with bonuses to be ‘worth it’, and/or create multiple offers and price points to be ‘accessible’.

And, when people still say ‘no’ despite addressing all the things you think they might need for their ‘yes’ to be a ‘no-brainer’, you reinforce the thought that this is happening because “you didn’t get the offer right”.

So, you keep changing up your offer(s) in hopes to find that magical offer that not only helps people say ‘yes’ to working with you, but keeps them saying ‘yes’ to validate that you are indeed someone worth working with.

In another scenario, you’re stuck in your niche.

You think that if you niche down, you’ll box yourself into a corner and leave out people you really want to help.

When you believe your niche limits you from working with people you want to work with, you find yourself feeling restricted.

You research and over-educate yourself to get clearer on your niche. You do the ideal client avatar exercises. You pick a niche to say you have one.

After some time, you find the niche you picked still doesn’t fit as well as you’d like because it’s not allowing you to include people you want to work with.

You attempt to widen your niche parameters, except now it’s including people you’re not wanting to work with.

You just can’t seem to crack the code for the perfect niche!

The drama keeps you stuck, inadvertently boxing you into a corner unable to help anyone at all.

Where It Started

Perfection is your brain’s way of protecting you from failure, unworthiness, and being vulnerable to judgment.

It tells you that as long you do something “this way” (ie. post on Instagram 2-3x’s/day) or you find “X” (ie. the right offer/niche), you’ll be safe and happy because you’ll avoid the pain that comes with getting it wrong.

From a young age, you learned how to do things in a way that minimized the pain that comes from the failure and judgment of getting it wrong.

• You learned that when you did what you were told, people in your family were happy.

• You learned that when you say “yes”, your friends want to hangout with you more.

• You learned that when you arrive early and leave late at work, your boss praises your dedication.

You also learned that when you:

• didn’t do what you were told, people in your family talked about your mistakes.

• say “no”, your friends make you feel bad for it.

• are late for work, your boss makes unkind remarks about your punctuality.

The hurt you experienced from disappointing anyone is real and lives deeply in your body.

And, over the years, it’s messages have helped you to stay far from anything that could lead to you getting it wrong.

So, it’s only natural that you would want to do the right thing in your business.

But, if you’re not careful, you can easily fall prey to the cycle of perfection without even realizing you’re there in the first place.

Six Questions To Ask When You’re Stuck In A Cycle Of Perfection

When you find yourself swirling in the quicksand of perfection, ask yourself these questions. Use them as starting points to help you move through perfection’s loop.

1. What will I achieve by getting it right?

2. Why am I afraid of getting it wrong?

3. What’s the ultimate result I want?

4. If I couldn’t get it wrong, what actions would I take or stop taking? Why or why not?

5. What do I want to think and feel to move myself through this?

6. How can I love myself through all of this?

Reframing Perfection

The idea behind perfection and why so many of us get stuck in it’s grasp is because we are chasing the experience that perfection offers when it’s achieved.

We long to be seen as our highest self that has everything figured out.

While there is no such thing as true perfection or achieving something flawlessly, you hold deep emotional imprints around what it’s like to do something the right way and experience satisfaction and pleasure from it.

When you reframe perfection, you can continue to aim as high as you want without the looimng pressure of it breathing down your neck.

You do this by chasing excellence instead.

When you chase excellence, you make room for improvement, grace, and compassion to walk alongside you in the journey.

You allow yourself space for imperfections to create something unique, your growth to deepen, and for you to explore all the different ways to a result without shame, confusion, or guilt.

Perfection has been your protector and it always will be.

It gets to continue to do that for you.

You also get to focus your efforts through a lens that supports everything you’re working for.

Let excellence be your guide because every bit of it already belongs to you.

Boldly,

Lynne xo