Recently, I surprised my friend for his birthday. The plan was to show up at his door with a delicious cake – lemon (his favorite flavor), mylar birthday balloon and my big smile. Well, everything went according to plan – except, that when I got out of the car, carrying the cake (inside the bakery box) and balloon, I lost my balance, tripped and dropped the cake. Yikes! Well, the good news is that the cake stayed inside the box, but the creamy white frosting with that beautiful “Happy Birthday” message on the cake smushed right into the box of the cake. Ok, so the cake wouldn’t look perfect, but it would still be ok. Or, so I hoped.
Inside his house, he opened the cake box, and much to my dismay, the cake was totally smushed, lopsided, disheveled…actually, pretty awful looking. How could that have happened? It looked like I had played football with it and used it for a “pass”…or maybe someone had thought it was a tennis ball and took a good swing at it. Double Yikes!! But, my friend was so good-natured about it, seemed really happy with the gesture, and we had a good laugh about it.
The next night, I did a little minor surgery (involving a knife, fork and spatula) on the cake, when I put the candles in it. Put on my biggest smile, lit the candles and sang “Happy Birthday”. The cake was delicious – even better than I could ever have expected. He thought the cake and the celebration were great. This story had a happy ending- it was imperfectly “perfect”.
A few years ago, before I started this new journey, if this had happened, I probably would have dealt with it much differently. Maybe, I would have gone back to the bakery and brought a different cake. Maybe, I would have thrown the cake in the trash. After all, how could I bring a cake that wasn’t perfect? If I still had that mindset, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the weekend with my friend as I would have been too worried about what had happened to the cake.
Did you get that message when you were a child that you should be the “perfect little girl/boy”? All of those messages that you received in your childhood, cause you now as an adult, to move through life often uneasy way. I know these old beliefs had affected me. Now, I see this in my clients. Most typically, it stops them from moving forward because they are afraid that what they do won’t be “perfect”. They’re afraid to get their website up, or create a new program, hold a workshop, write their book. The list goes on and on.
Before we’ve worked together, they’ve often been procrastinating and stuck in their business – not able to move forward. How many times has that happened to you? How many times have you been stuck, waiting for everything to move forward? Imagine, what you could do and would do, if you didn’t think it (you) had to be “perfect” – what if “good enough” was ok for some things? Imagine where you would be in your business and your life.
Here are three (3) Success Tips to help you get unstuck and start releasing the need to be perfect:
1) One of the first steps to moving forward is awareness. Make a list of some of the things that you need to do but you have been procrastinating with.
2) Take this list and next to each item, write down how your business and life would change by getting into action.
3) Next to each item, list what you are afraid might not be perfect about what you are doing. These fears that you have listed need to be cleared so you can move forward in an easy way. If you would like help, with this process, apply for a Money Breakthrough Session. During this time, we’ll uncover what is blocking you and what steps you need to take to move forward. Here’s the link to get started: https://www.timetrade.com/book/RVKN2.
Be Brilliant,
